Vertigo
by azurefang
Summary: Klaus is forced to deal with Stefan's strange behavior while they are on the road.
1. Chapter 1

VERTIGO

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters are mine.

A.N. This takes place while Klaus and Stefan are looking for Ray. It is after Stefan slaughters the two women that knew Ray. Alert – if reading about dizziness, nausea or throwing up makes you queasy, skip some sentences.

As Klaus drove along, neither he nor Stefan was in a good mood. Klaus wanted Stefan to torture and kill a man just because he had annoyed him, Klaus, in the past, and Stefan did not want to do it because it had nothing to do with finding Ray, nor was he hungry. Neither of them was hungry because they had eaten a meal of regular food. Stefan felt that he had already proven to Klaus that he was willing to maim and kill for a good reason, but he stubbornly refused to do it on this occasion. He was not in the mood. In fact, now he did not feel well, which was odd.

There were times when a vampire felt ill, such as when exposed to vervain or when he was recovering from a serious injury, especially one that tore holes in the intestines, or on rare occasions when certain poisons got into their bodies. But they were not affected by diseases caused by germs or conditions like cancer.

Klaus was driving the newest of their vehicles and he frowned with annoyance as he growled, "Why are you being stubborn about this?"

"I told you. It has nothing to do with finding Ray. And besides, now I don't feel well," Stefan muttered. It seemed like his eyes were not focusing.

"Excuse me? You 'don't feel well?' What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"It means I feel a little dizzy and nauseated," Stefan said, his eyes closed.

"And you expect me to believe that? Come on, mate, you can be more original than that. Since when do vampires feel dizzy and nauseated? You haven't eaten anything poisonous that would do it and no one has slipped you some vervain."

"How do I know you haven't?" Stefan muttered, a wave of nausea sweeping through him.

"I haven't got any, for one thing. For another, I want you to do this little exercise for me. You _will_ do it, won't you?" His tone was slightly threatening.

"Pull over to the side of the road, Klaus. I'm going to puke!"

"No, you're not."

"I am, damn it! Pull over or I'll barf in the car," Stefan demanded and he was relieved that Klaus slowed and pulled over onto the grassy shoulder. He released his seat belt, quickly opened the door and vomited the lunch he had had an hour earlier. In a minute his stomach was empty. He pulled a tissue from the box on the console and wiped his mouth.

"All better?" Klaus asked sarcastically. He knew Stefan was able to vomit anytime he wanted to, and having eaten real food, it was more impressive.

"Not really. I still feel dizzy and sick. I'm not kidding, Klaus," Stefan said as he closed the door and re-snapped his seat belt.

"I don't believe you. You're not some kid who gets a stomach ache because he doesn't want to go to school. It's no big deal that I want you to kill someone. You've been doing it for weeks now." He started driving again.

"It's not that. I really don't feel right. I don't know why and I'm not pretending. The world is starting to shift around. Like vertigo. It's tilting!" Stefan said, alarmed, and he gripped the dashboard with both hands. "Stop the car again. Make it stop! Are we rolling over?"

"We're fine," Klaus said, looking at Stefan with a questioning expression. He pulled over to the grassy shoulder again and watched his younger companion. Stefan had a frightened look on his face and he swayed a little. His head turned back and forth at odd moments. In addition, he started moaning and gasping. His eyes were not focusing.

"Klaus, what's going on? Klaus!" Stefan cried in alarm.

"You said it's vertigo. Close your eyes and sit still. Maybe it'll pass."

"Everything's moving. We're falling over!" One of Stefan's hands reached up to press against the headliner of the car as if to brace himself.

"No, we're not. It's all in your head, mate. Nothing else is moving," Klaus said, beginning to think that Stefan was not pretending. This didn't make sense to him.

Then suddenly, the crazy sensations stopped and Stefan stared out the windshield at the road. He then looked at Klaus. "It's gone! Just like that, it's gone," he said, although he was still breathing fast. "I don't understand what happened."

"Yeah, sure," Klaus muttered and he started to drive again. There was no one else on this rural road except a car behind them a ways.

They came to the side road leading to the farm Klaus wanted and he slowed in preparation to turning.

"There's only one car behind us. If it turns in here, too, we'll turn around and leave. At least for a while," he said. He didn't want more people at the farm.

Stefan turned and glanced back at the car. As far as he could see, it was a white Toyota with one headlight not working. The other light was on, as many folks these days drove with their lights on during the day. After Klaus made the turn, Stefan watched in the outside mirror to see if the car followed. It didn't.

"It went on past," he said, even though Klaus could see that in his rearview mirror.

"Good," Klaus said, smiling as he drove along the bumpy dirt road.

"Klaus, the feeling is coming back!" Stefan warned as his vision became unfocused. He heard a slight ringing in his ears this time and the road ahead of them seemed to tilt sideways. Reflexively, he grabbed at the dash and the roof over his head.

"Be careful!" he yelped. "We're rolling over!"

Klaus slowed and stopped. He eyed Stefan critically and could see it was happening again. However, he was still not convinced that Stefan was not acting, determined not to carry out this assignment. He saw Stefan's stomach heave, bringing up some stomach juices that spilled over onto his chin and onto his shirt. Stefan's face was really pale and his breathing fast. He kept grabbing at things, as if to steady himself. There was nothing Klaus could do but watch.

Stefan gagged, but nothing more came up. He moaned, his eyes closed tightly, and he pressed his hands against his temples and his ears.

"Do you have a headache?" Klaus asked.

The ringing was so loud to Stefan that he wasn't sure what Klaus had said. Even with his eyes closed, his body told him he was falling over. He reached out to grab onto something. His left hand closed on Klaus' arm and his grip was very tight.

Klaus winced and tried to pry Stefan's hand loose. He was about to break the fingers when Stefan let go and grabbed for something that was not there, his arm waving in the air. Then Klaus watched Stefan slump against the door as he seemed to lose consciousness and saliva drooled from his mouth.

"Stefan!" Klaus said and he reached over and shook the younger man's shoulder. Stefan didn't respond. He would have sagged forward, but the seat belt held him. "Damn it!" Klaus muttered. "What the hell is going on here?"

He looked ahead down the dirt road, undecided about what to do. He would not be welcome at this farm. He had to attack and get control of the situation. He couldn't do it without Stefan's help and now his young partner had become very unreliable. Muttering curses, he backed the vehicle up until he came to the paved road. No other cars were coming either way, so he backed onto the road and then drove in the direction he had been going before. He passed the house next door and saw the white car there.

A short way down the road, Stefan stirred and woke up. He felt confused when he looked at Klaus. "Where are we?" he asked, straightening up.

"A little past the farm," Klaus said. "I'm very disappointed in you, love."

"I don't care, man. I want to know what the hell happened to me."

"I have no idea. Unless you were putting on an act, which I don't like at all."

"I was _not_ putting on any act. I swear. Damn, look at my shirt! If I were acting, I wouldn't vomit on my shirt. It's disgusting."

"You have plenty of shirts since your buying spree." He didn't like the fact that Stefan had bought a bunch of clothes with his debit card. It was possible someone could track them because of the card. He had also broken Stefan's cell phone and made him get a new one so that the number wouldn't be traced. And he still wanted Stefan to wreak revenge on the man at the farm. "There's a town up ahead. We'll stop at a motel and get a room."

"Why?"

"Because our business here is not finished and I want you to get some rest and get a grip on yourself."

They came around a corner in the road and found themselves in a really small town. There was an old motel right on the main road and Klaus pulled into the parking lot. In no time, they were in a room that smelled of cigarette smoke and disinfectant.

"This is a crummy room," Stefan said, although he had stayed in worse. "It better not have bed bugs."

Klaus sniffed around the bed and the bottom of the nearest wall. The truth was that vampires could smell bedbugs because of the blood the insects ingested.

"No bedbugs. Roaches, maybe. Pick a bed and lie down."

Stefan wanted to argue with him, but he still felt shaky and a bit dizzy. In fact, the dizziness slowly increased as he lay down. He lay there swearing.

"What?" Klaus demanded.

"It's coming back!" Stefan said and he tried to sit up. He fell off the bed with a thump.

Klaus muttered a curse as he bent down and hauled Stefan to his feet and dumped him back on the bed. "You keep this up and I'll call your brother to come get you. Do you hear me?" he growled in a threatening tone. In truth, Klaus had no intention of doing that.

But Stefan didn't hear him because of the buzzing in his ears and the swirling of the world around him, even though he had his eyes closed. He was thrashing around and waving his arms around trying to get hold of something to stop the movement. He retched up some more stomach juice, but it was hardly more than spit that foamed on his lips. The attack so unnerved him that tears of fear and frustration came to his eyes and he cried out more curses. He was getting panicky.

Klaus stepped close to the bed and landed a hard punch to the side of Stefan's head. That stopped the whole episode because the younger man was out cold. Klaus stood in the silent room and wondered what he should do. Annoyed, he stepped out of the room to the covered walkway outside. One thing he spotted right away was the white car with the one headlight. Fast as he moved, the car sped away faster. But now he realized that whoever was in that car was probably a witch who was following them, perhaps someone hired to do so, who could cause seizures in Stefan.

Concerned and angry, he went back into the room and looked at Stefan. He was asleep or unconscious. Klaus shook his shoulder, but Stefan didn't wake up. It was possible the blow Klaus had delivered had caused a fracture or bleeding in Stefan's head, but it would heal, given a short time, so Klaus waited, not too patiently. He stood at the window and watched to see if the car came back or if a person on foot came to stare at the room.

Stefan woke up in five minutes. He had a headache, more from the blow than from the seizure. "Did I hit my head?" he asked, pressing a hand to the place where he had been hit.

"Yes," Klaus said. "You fell off the bed. Are you free of the vertigo?"

"At the moment."

"The white car with one headlight was out in the parking lot. It took off the moment I looked at it. It's possible the driver is the cause of your problem."

"Like a witch's power? Why? It's obviously aimed at me, not you."

"I don't have the answer, love. Every time you had an attack, that car was within sight, even though we didn't notice at first."

"It went by us at the dirt road," Stefan said, remembering. After that, he didn't remember seeing the car.

"It was in the next driveway. Either we need to catch this person or we need to change cars again."

"I'm all for catching the bastard," Stefan said. "I'll gladly kill him. Or her."

"I wish we knew the range of the witch's power. It seems to be at least a hundred yards or more. It could even be a quarter of a mile. That leaves you vulnerable unless we can outrun or evade him."

They talked for a few minutes, thinking of plans and giving Stefan's headache time to disappear. He put on a clean shirt. They decided to go to a café that was open practically next door. They both felt the need for a drink. They walked there without a problem. Stefan only took a few swallows of his beer, fearing an attack with more nausea and vomiting. While he stayed at a booth by the window, Klaus headed for the restroom toward the rear of the place, but actually he went out the back door to see if he could spot anyone.

In the meantime, Stefan told the waitress that he had been having seizures and that if it happened, just to let it run its course and not call for help. In fact, he said it loud enough that the three other patrons could hear. They all agreed not to call anyone. It was a good thing he had done this because not two minutes later, he felt the first wave of dizziness.

"I'll come out of it," he told those present as they stared at him. "Just let me be."

After that, he succumbed to the terrible vertigo and he thrashed around. The sips of beer he had swallowed came up, spilling onto his clean shirt. Suddenly, the symptoms ceased. He was momentarily too confused to think why. He was just glad it had stopped.

"Are you all right now?" the pale waitress asked. The other people had moved closer and were looking on with concern.

"Yes. For now," Stefan said, trying to stop the shaking of his hands. He used a napkin to blot at the sour beer on his shirt.

"Isn't there something, some medication, you can take to stop the seizures?" the waitress asked, handing him two more napkins.

"I don't have any with me. This was unexpected," he said.

"Your friend should be with you. Where did he go? He's been in the john a while," one of the men said.

"He also went out back to smoke, I think," Stefan said, adlibbing.

In fact, Klaus did walk in from the back door just then and came to the table. He was carrying a small dog. He certainly saw the group watching Stefan and assumed he had had a seizure. He knew it had stopped. He knew exactly when it had stopped. When Stefan looked at him, he gave a slight nod.

"Anyone know this dog?" Klaus asked. "I spotted him down that dirt path and the poor thing was limping badly. A broken leg, I think."

"That's Fred Clark's dog. I'll call Fred to come get him. The vet lives in the next town," one of the men said.

Klaus carefully set the dog on the floor, where it lay down, panting. Then Klaus sat in the booth and faced Stefan.

"Are you all right now?" he asked in a sympathetic tone.

"I seem to be. Messed up another shirt," Stefan said. He wondered if Klaus' caring tone was for show in front of the group or was real. "Let's go back to the motel."

"Yes. I have something to tell you," Klaus said. "Good news. And bad." He didn't say anything further as they walked back to the motel because three chatting people happened to walk right behind them to the same motel.

Once in the room, Stefan took off his soiled shirt. He headed into the bathroom and did his best to clean the stains from the two soiled shirts. He heard Klaus come into the bathroom behind him and felt the man run a hand down his bare back. Klaus slipped both arms around Stefan and drew their bodies together. Stefan didn't stop cleaning the shirt. After being together with Klaus for weeks, he was well aware that the hybrid liked intimacy with both women and men. The closest man was usually Stefan. It was something he had had to accept because he had put himself in Klaus' hands, more literally than he had expected.

"I apologize for doubting you," Klaus said softly in Stefan's ear. "Forgive me?"

"Yeah. Okay," Stefan said quietly. Bastard, he thought. He could have believed me to begin with. "So, what did you find out?"

Klaus told him that he had walked around in back of the café and behind the buildings on both sides of the street and he had spotted the white car parked on a side street. Then he had spotted a woman crouched down behind a bush, which was across the street from the café. He had then shifted place in a blur to get right behind the woman. She was concentrating so hard on the café, that for a second she didn't register Klaus' presence. Because the bush was in plain view of the café and was also out in the open, he didn't think he could hustle the woman away without a fight, so he broke her neck and left her there.

"So our chance to question her is gone. Sorry, love," Klaus said, his lips brushing Stefan's shoulder. He then let go and turned away back into the bedroom.

"You're sure she was a witch?" Stefan asked as he rung out the shirts. He wrapped them in a bath towel and rung again before he hung them on hangers in the tiny closet.

"I'm sure. Now we don't know if _she_ was angry at you or if someone _else _is and hired her to torment you," Klaus said.

"Great," Stefan said, putting on a clean shirt. At least he didn't have to worry about that particular witch. "That dog, did you break its leg?"

"No. It was already limping when I picked it up. Look, I'll give you a break. For now, I'll let the guy at the farm go. We'll leave here and get on the road again if you feel all right now."

"I'm all right. No dizziness or double vision. Where are we going?"

"Memphis, to find our werewolf friend Ray," Klaus said with a grin and within a half hour, they were headed west.

"It's such a relief to know I won't have any more of that damned vertigo," Stefan said as Klaus drove along the highway. "I'm just glad I won't have to go through that again."

Too bad he was wrong.

A.N. What do you all think? Should I write some more along the same line? I have some ideas.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters are mine.

A.N. Thank you so much for the reviews and the response to the first chapter. It encourages me to write more. This chapter takes place the day after the disaster with the werewolf pack in the mountains.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

"Why are we going to Chicago?" Stefan asked as he drove alone the Interstate highway in Tennessee. Traffic was fairly heavy. He was not in a big hurry, so he was in the outside lane, although now and then he passed someone who was going too slow.

He and Klaus had stopped for lunch at a truck stop. Lately, Stefan had been eating a lot of regular food at Klaus' urging, along with the regular feedings of fresh blood. They had eaten at some really nice restaurants on occasion, since Klaus enjoyed it. The functioning of Stefan's digestive system had improved over their weeks together, although he didn't care for the discomfort of over-eating. Nor was he used to having to use a toilet so often. He found it a nuisance.

"I told you. We're going to the 'Windy City' to see someone. I haven't totally given up on the idea of making more hybrids," Klaus said, not looking at Stefan. His head was turned to the side and he was watching the scenery.

"I don't see how anyone else can change the outcome of what happened in that camp. That's going to be in the news all over the place. All those people dead."

"So? I don't believe anyone saw us," Klaus said. As best he could, he had put the werewolf pack disaster behind him. He didn't understand what had gone wrong, but what was done was done.

"Except the ranger at the gate," Stefan pointed out. He did not, of course, mention that Damon, Elena and Alaric had learned of their presence there. That whole episode in the mountains had been a fiasco and Stefan knew it had temporarily damaged Klaus' big ego. He'd been so sure he would succeed. The hybrid's emotional devastation had made Stefan actually feel sorry for Klaus, although Klaus had soon perked up.

"That ranger won't remember us," Klaus assured him, knowing he'd erased the man's memory of them as he was taking the entrance fee. No one had seen them leave in the dark of night. "You worry too much, mate." He reached out and gently punched Stefan's shoulder. When Stefan didn't take his eyes off the road, Klaus looked back out the window. A CD of old Beatles songs played softly and he felt drowsy.

Stefan let his mind wander. He hadn't been to Chicago in a long time. The first time had been in the 1920's. It had been a little wild in those days. Prohibition, speakeasies and plenty of black market liquor. He'd had a sporty automobile back then and several lady friends in their "flapper" dresses. He'd had a one-room apartment, not a fancy place, but a place to sleep and to feed from a lady or two. A place that he had used also in the 1950's and in 1978. The building still stood and was owned by the Salvatore Trust because he had insisted they buy it. Hidden in the room was his "wall of shame."

Much of what he had done in Chicago in the 1920's was foggy in his mind. He thought he must have consumed way too much bootleg liquor, because he had no real memory of some of the time he had spent there, especially the few weeks just before he left. Surely he had had more friends than he remembered, but he couldn't recall them now.

As he drove along, a vaguely familiar feeling came to him. His vision went out of focus and then back again. He thought the car swerved and yet he hadn't turned the wheel. He turned it to try to straighten up and in a moment realized he was on the road's shoulder. He brought the car back to the lane as fear gripped him. It couldn't be the vertigo! The witch was dead!

"What the hell was that? Something in the road?" Klaus asked, alarmed.

"Klaus! It's the vertigo!" Stefan exclaimed as the world tipped. "Take the wheel! I don't know which way to go."

"Damn it! Let go. I got it. Take your foot off the gas. We're speeding up! Take your foot off the gas, Stefan! That's it."

"We're rolling over!" Stefan cried, his arms reaching frantically for support.

"No! We're all right. We're all right. We're slowing down on the shoulder. Put your foot on the brake. No! On the _brake_, Stefan! That's it. Damn! Are you sure it's the same feeling?"

"It is! I'm gonna puke," Stefan said and he opened the driver's door. He fumbled with his seat belt release and then hung out a bit just as the car came to a stop. Other drivers sped by, honking their horns, as he vomited the lunch he had eaten.

Klaus had shifted the gears into neutral until the car stopped and then he put it in park. He watched Stefan for a moment, and then got out of the car and searched for any suspicious vehicle that might have slowed or stopped. Was it possible another witch was following them? A car did stop. It was a Highway Patrol car that pulled onto the shoulder behind them.

Klaus swore under his breath. Just what they needed! He waved to the cop and walked toward the car, putting himself between the officer and the license plate, just in case he was checking it. He watched the officer get out of the car and approach him.

"What seems to be the trouble?" the man asked.

"My buddy got sick. He's been driving and all of sudden he felt dizzy and nauseous," Klaus explained. "And I thought someone threw something at us from that bridge back there." He hoped that explained why he was out of the car and looking around.

The officer walked over to the open driver's door and looked at Stefan, who was vomiting again, moaning and swaying back and forth. He had a death grip on the door frame and the steering wheel.

Stefan felt terrible and then all of a sudden the vertigo was gone. He sat up and leaned his head back against the head rest. Klaus was at the other open door.

"Do you feel better?" he asked. "Has it passed?"

"Yes. It seems to have passed," Stefan said, wiping his lips and chin with a tissue. He looked up at the officer. "I feel better. It came on so fast. I think my friend better drive for a while."

"Sounds like a good idea. Has this happened before?" the officer asked.

"No," Stefan lied.

"Did you see someone throw anything off the bridge back there?"

"Ah…no. I didn't. But I think I was concentrating on driving and trying not to vomit in the car. I guess lunch didn't agree with me."

It was a couple of minutes before the officer let them go, apparently satisfied that Stefan had been ill because of something he had eaten. There were no bottles or cans of alcoholic drinks in the car, no marijuana smoke. Klaus even thanked the officer for stopping to help them if they had needed it. Back in the car with Klaus driving, Stefan said, "I don't understand this. You killed that witch, so who's out there doing this to me?" His stomach still churned, but it was from fear, not nausea.

"I don't know, but it's someone who has to be following us, tracking us."

"How? I wish we could have questioned the witch instead of you killing her," Stefan said, glancing at Klaus.

"It couldn't be helped."

"I know. Who the hell is out there _now_?"

"Who knows, love? How do you feel?"

"Right now, fine. Well, almost fine. A little headache. No vertigo. Just like before, it stopped so suddenly. But it was different this time. No ringing in my ears, for instance."

"It has to be a different witch. The person was either on that bridge back there or in a car that drove right by us. There's an exit up ahead. I'm going off there. There's a fifty-fifty chance that the other car did, too. Okay?"

"I don't see why he'd do that. You can keep going, Klaus. Whoa! On second thought, I'm getting cramps now. Better take the exit." He pressed a hand against his rumbling abdomen.

They were lucky in that there was a convenient gas station with a rest room. While Stefan used the facilities, Klaus kept watch for any suspicious cars. He saw nothing that caught his attention and he was glad to see Stefan come from the building at a steady walk. And then Stefan collapsed on the ground. Again, Klaus' eyes swept the area. There were six cars parked close by, a few driving on the secondary road and many crossing the overpass.

As he hurried over to Stefan, he told the dozen people gathering around that Stefan had seizures and he would be all right.

"I just called 911," a man said.

"Call them back. He'll be all right in a few minutes," Klaus told him and the man obeyed. Kneeling beside the writhing, retching Stefan, Klaus' eyes sought the eyes of each person there. He found himself staring at a tall black man who had an odd expression on his face, one of concentration. When he saw Klaus looking at him, his face took on a faint smile. Almost instantly, Stefan rolled onto his back and lay still, his moaning ceasing, his eyes closed.

The black man, along with a white man, turned and moved toward a nearby car. Klaus didn't move unnaturally fast, but he hurried after the men. In a low voice he asked the black man what he was up to. Why was he following them and hurting Stefan?

The man grinned and said, "I have no idea what you mean. Your buddy seems to have a problem. I wouldn't let him drive if I was you." He got into the passenger seat of the car while the other man went around to the driver's side. Klaus wanted to grab one of them, but other people were watching him closely. He didn't want anyone phoning for law enforcement because of a fight. He wanted to compel the black man, but he would not look at him for more than a second and Klaus could feel the resistance of both men to being compelled. Vervain? He was sure the black man was a witch.

"I'm warning you," he whispered coldly. "Do _not_ do this again. You most certainly will regret it."

The black man grinned, glanced at him and rolled his eyes as the other man started the car. In a moment, Klaus was left glaring after them.

He turned back to where Stefan still lay on the ground. Why hadn't he stood up yet? Three people were still standing around him, with a fourth hunkered down beside him, speaking kindly to him. This fourth person stood when Klaus drew near.

"All right, folks. Stefan will be okay. Please be kind enough to go back to your business and let him recover," Klaus said calmly. He then squatted down on the oily pavement beside his friend, who had an arm over his eyes.

"How do you feel now?" he asked.

"No vertigo. I'm a little shaky," Stefan muttered. He sat up when Klaus took his

arm. "Damn it! I can't believe this." He couldn't say much with a few people still standing around watching.

"I know. The whole thing is frustrating," Klaus said.

"Look at my clothes. What a mess," Stefan muttered. His clothes were soiled, not only because he had vomited a little, but also because he had been lying in the oil and grease dripped from cars. In addition, he had several scrapes on his skin from thrashing about on the pavement. "Damn. I almost shit my pants. I don't know," Stefan whispered.

"Don't make a big deal out of it. Get clean clothes out of the trunk and go back in the restroom and clean up."

Stefan got to his feet where he tottered unsteadily just for a moment. He had a mild headache. He felt Klaus take his arm to steady him and they walked to the back of the car. Trying to look like he did this every day, he fished clean clothes out of his bag and headed back to the restroom to change.

Once they were in the car again with Klaus driving, Stefan fussed, "You know, I wouldn't be vomiting so much if you didn't insist I eat so much food. And I wouldn't get cramps like that."

"Don't whine. You enjoy the food. I know you do," Klaus said with his usual amused smile.

"I like the taste, and then I eat too much," Stefan admitted.

"I don't think the cramps you had were from the food."

"You think that bastard made me cramp? Why? So we'd pull off at that gas station?"

"I do think so. I think he wanted me to see him. The brazen bastard is taunting us. I couldn't do anything with all those people watching and I sensed that neither of those men could be easily compelled. I'm sure the black guy is the witch."

"The question is, is the witch on his own and why, or is he working for someone?" Stefan mused worriedly. "What'd I ever do to have someone set witches on me?"

"You kill people, my friend. There are a few people who know that. Like your brother."

"He wouldn't do this. I know he probably hates my guts, but this isn't his style."

"You never told me what you did to make him back off tracking us," Klaus reminded him.

Because his anger at Damon had cooled, he now felt somewhat guilty for causing Andie Starr's death. She'd been a nice lady. Stefan also found it incredible that, even after Andie's death and the warning Stefan had given, Damon had still showed up tracking him in the mountains. And with Elena! Did Damon have no common sense?

"I killed his girlfriend. I caused her death right in front of him," he told Klaus.

"Way to go, Stefan! I'm proud of you," Klaus said with an actual chuckle. "Now, if we just knew _how_ that witch is tracking us."

Klaus continued to do the driving because they didn't trust Stefan not to have another attack. Neither of them was convinced that the witch had really been frightened off by Klaus' threat. To make sure there was no tracking device attached to their car, they traded for another car the next day. Nothing more happened as they continued on to Chicago.

A.N. How is the witch tracking them and will he strike again? Can he find them in Chicago?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

A.N. Stefan and Klaus visit Gloria's club and Klaus revives his sister. Alert: Male/male and male/female sex scene, no explicit details.

Having arrived in Chicago without any problems, Klaus and Stefan got a room in a nice hotel in the early afternoon. They thought it very unlikely that the witch could have tracked them to the city or within the large city. In fact, Klaus allowed Stefan to go out on his own when he asked to do so, feeling there was no danger from the witch. He also trusted Stefan not to run away.

It was in the late afternoon when Klaus took Stefan to a club which each of them had frequented back in the twenties, although Stefan didn't recall having known Klaus then. The club called Gloria's was not yet opened for customers, but the owner let them in. The black woman, who had been there in the twenties, was still there, much to Stefan's amazement. He was soon informed that she was a powerful witch and that she had managed to hold the years at bay. She looked like a tall, handsome woman in her sixties, instead of an old woman past one hundred.

Klaus explained to Gloria about his plan to make hybrids, the sacrifice of the doppelganger and the problems he had encountered since. She told him that if she was to help him, she would need a piece of jewelry which Rebekah had. Klaus nodded and said that he could contact his sister and get it.

He took Stefan to a small warehouse where he showed the younger man that the family coffins had made the trip to Chicago, too. There were five of them. Two were very old, scarred and scratched. Two others were not as old, but a bit battered. The newest Stefan knew belonged to Elijah. Klaus wouldn't discuss who was in any of them.

He opened one of the better ones. It contained a female and he removed the dagger stuck in her heart. Stefan recognized the young woman as Rebekah only after Klaus explained that he had compelled Stefan to forget anything about him and the girl, his sister. Now, with his memories restored, Stefan understood the confusion he had felt and the lapses in his memory.

He remembered knowing and liking Klaus very well and he recalled how he had been attracted to the beautiful and often sarcastic Rebekah. But Klaus had made him forget that he ever knew them. Stefan had seen Rebecca's chain and locket on the floor after she and Klaus had hurried from the club and he had picked it up. He had not remembered that it was the young blonde's locket, but he had kept it. He knew it was the one he had eventually given Elena. Could it be the very piece Gloria needed?

He also recalled that policemen, with guns loaded with wooden bullets, had entered the bar, but they were looking for specific people. He remembered the top-ranking officer showing him drawings of a man and a woman, but at that time, because his memory of Klaus and Rebekah had just been erased, he didn't recognize them.

It now occurred to Stefan that when the shooting by the police had taken place, Klaus and Rebecca had hurried to leave town. Chicago was a big city. Why had they fled? Who would Klaus need to run from? Was it possible they were running from someone they actually feared and who could harm them?

Leaving the warehouse, Klaus and Stefan went back to Gloria's and Klaus asked the woman if she might have some clothes that Rebekah could use. After all, the young vampire was still in a bloodstained dress from the nineteen twenties. Gloria willingly found something and gave it to Klaus. Returning to the warehouse, they found that Rebekah was slowly reviving.

"It sometimes takes a while," Klaus told Stefan. This was a surprise to Stefan because he knew Elijah had come back quite fast after being stabbed. Klaus left the slacks and shirt at the coffin and he told the man guarding the coffins to let her feed on him until death. Then he and Stefan returned to the hotel. Wanting to celebrate the revival of his sister, Klaus decided to go to the liquor store next door to the hotel to buy some good champagne. The girl would appreciate that, he knew.

When Klaus returned to the room, he heard the shower water running. He set the champagne bottle on a table and went through the open bathroom door into the steamy room. The idea of joining Stefan in the shower crossed his mind, but then he spotted a smear of blood on the shower curtain.

"What the hell? Stefan!" he said in alarm as he moved the curtain aside.

Stefan was collapsed down in the tub! Klaus knew that the young man had had another vertigo attack. Assuming it had been caused by the witch who had been following them, fury overcame Klaus. He bellowed in rage and punched a hole part way through the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom.

Stefan appeared to be unconscious, which was not surprising, for he had at least two lumps on his head, both of them oozing blood. He also had a fat, split lip that was bleeding, plus a couple of bleeding abrasions on his arms that were starting to heal. It was lucky that he had fallen toward the end of the tub that didn't have the faucet.

Klaus turned off the water that was falling on Stefan's hips and legs. Bloody water swirled slowly down the drain. It had pooled because one of Stefan's feet was on the drain.

"Stefan, wake up, mate. Come on," Klaus said gently. When Stefan didn't move, the hybrid cursed angrily. He took two of the big bath towels and laid them on the bathroom's tiled floor. Then he put his hands under Stefan's armpits and carefully lifted him out of the tub and laid him on the towels. Stefan wasn't breathing, but that was of no concern. His heart wasn't beating either, which reduced any bleeding.

Kneeling beside his friend, Klaus lifted Stefan's upper lip to check his teeth. None were damaged and the split in the lip was closing. He straightened both arms and legs, looking for fractures. The only ones he found were the toes of Stefan's right foot where he had violently kicked the side of the tub. He straightened them out. Then he wet a wash cloth and began removing some of the blood from his friend's face and neck. Despite his anger over the situation, he was gentle with Stefan.

The younger man began to wake up, but he was very groggy and not coordinated.

"You're all right, love," Klaus said. "Just got a bad bang on the head. Do you hear me?"

Stefan nodded his head lightly and groaned. He didn't open his eyes, one of which was puffy. If he were not a vampire with quick healing capabilities, he could look forward to a week with a black eye. He raised his arms and pressed his hands to his head, indicating that he had quite a headache. Klaus knew he might even have a fracture.

When Stefan tried to sit up, he only got up as far as leaning on one arm. Klaus reached out, put his arms around him, sat him up and drew him close against his chest. "It'll be all right in a few minutes, love," he whispered and he leaned his chin gently on the top of Stefan's head, the wet hair slowly dripping.

For a long moment, Stefan stayed in this position, and then his confusion began to clear. "I'm all right, I guess. How could this happen? How did that bastard track us down? Klaus, what if my problem really isn't being caused by him?" he asked worriedly, managing to sit up straight. "Maybe I have a brain tumor!"

"I'm sure it's him. And I have no damned idea how he's tracking us," Klaus said. "Come on, get back in the shower and wash this blood off. I'm staying right here just in case."

A few minutes later, Stefan was clean and drying off and nothing had happened. His wounds were healed, although he had some bruises. The puffiness around his eye and on his lip had gone down and there was only the faintest hint of a black eye. His toes were healed. The only sign that something had happened was the blood on the shower curtain and on the towels. Klaus put the towels and wash cloth to soak in a few inches of water in the tub and he held the shower curtain under the shower spray until there was almost no sign of the blood. He took off his shirt, which now had Stefan's blood on it, and put it in the water with the towels.

Worrying, Stefan sat naked on his bed. The situation made him nervous. He felt that he couldn't trust himself. He couldn't go anywhere or do anything without the possibility of an attack. He was at the mercy of the witch and it was scary.

Klaus came from the bathroom and sat beside him, putting an arm around him.

"Chin up, love," he said. "We'll figure this out and make him pay. I promise you." He could feel how tense Stefan was.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Stefan stood up and got clean clothes out of his bag. In a couple of minutes he was dressed and looking none the worse for wear. He carefully combed his hair, feeling sore spots on his scalp. He stared at his own brooding image in the mirror. Klaus, putting on a clean shirt, watched him with approval. They finally left the room.

They returned to Gloria's. The place was full of customers now and the witch was quite busy. As the two sat sipping beers and thinking, they both could not help but overhear the conversation going on not far from them. One person, who had a rather loud voice, was telling about a friend who had been in a car accident and was unconscious for two days in a ravine beside the road. The only reason he was located in time was because his phone was on and it had GPS.

Klaus and Stefan looked at each other as a light dawned on them. Stefan pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. He kept it charged and turned on most of the time, especially if he and Klaus were not together.

"Do you have GPS on that new phone?" Klaus whispered.

"Yes! The guy told me that when I bought it. That has to be it! My God, how could I be so stupid? It has to be how they're tracking us," Stefan whispered back, referring to the witches. He even wondered if that was how Damon had tracked him to the mountains. Feeling like an idiot, Stefan turned off the phone. Not that it mattered at this point. The witch knew about the hotel and probably knew about the club. Would Elena and Damon show up in Chicago, too? No, Damon wouldn't dare!

At the warehouse, they found Rebekah's coffin empty and the workman dead on the floor from her feeding, but no Rebekah. Then suddenly, she was there, driving the dagger into Klaus' heart. He grunted in pain, but was otherwise unaffected. With a smirk, he pulled the knife from his chest. Satisfied that she had paid him back for putting her out of commission for a while, she eyed both of them with suspicion. Stefan couldn't tell if she was glad to see him or not. Did she even remember him?

Stefan saw that she had put on the clothes Klaus had left. Her shoes were her own high heels. Klaus told her that Gloria needed a piece of jewelry that she had. She patted her neck where a jewelry chain would have hung, but all that was there was the string of pearls she had been wearing in the coffin. She suddenly looked alarmed, for she apparently hadn't noticed until then that something was missing.

"Where is it?" she demanded of Klaus.

"What?"

"My locket!"

"I don't know, love," he said with concern.

Wild-eyed, Rebekah searched her coffin's satin lining and then, furious, she knocked over the heavy wooden box. She hurried over to where the man's body lay and she frantically looked around him, even to turning him over with her foot.

Stefan watched, fascinated by her beauty, her rage and her strength. He didn't mention that he knew where the locket was. It was obviously more than a simple piece of jewelry if Gloria needed it.

Klaus managed to calm his sister somewhat, telling her that it was likely she had lost it way back in time in the club during the shooting. He told her he didn't recall seeing it on her when he ran the dagger into her heart or when he put her in the coffin.

"Unless Gloria recalls picking it up after we left, it's long gone, love. I'm sorry," he said. This was a big disappointment for him when he learned from Rebekah that it was the very locket Gloria needed. His plan to make hybrids was foiled every time!

The young female vampire was still hungry, as were Klaus and Stefan, so the three went hunting. Hungry as she was, she still was careful not to get blood on her "new" clothes. Eventually, the three went to the hotel room, where the blonde girl happily took a hot shower. She was then fascinated by the handy blow dryer for her hair. She again put on the shirt and pants from Gloria.

The two men were amused for a couple of hours by Rebekah as she consumed quite a bit of champagne and by her awe over things like the television, cell phones, the adjustable modern lighting, the mini refrigerator and the automatic coffee maker. With enthusiasm and many questions, she quickly went through a couple of magazines Klaus had bought for her. She had "slept" for over eighty years and things had changed. She studied the pictures of the women's clothing.

"Tomorrow, you take me shopping. I have to have some of these!" she informed the men with a giggle. She finished off her latest glass of champagne.

To Stefan's surprise, she also said she wanted to have sex. It had obviously been way too long since the last time. She sidled up to him and caressed his crotch. He looked at Klaus with a questioning expression.

"Give the lady what she wants, mate," Klaus said with a grin.

Stefan thought Klaus would leave the room for a while, but he didn't. Rebekah didn't seem to mind. She undressed completely, pulled down the duvet and top sheet on one of the beds and lay down, smiling at Stefan invitingly.

Stefan was startled by her total lack of modesty in front of her brother and he found it embarrassing that Klaus continued to sit in a chair, watching. This was his _sister,_ after all. However, Stefan managed to suppress his embarrassment, undressed and gave the blonde what she wanted with enthusiasm. He knew how to please a woman, as well as himself, and he ended their love-making with standard intercourse. All in all, Rebekah was happy.

He wanted to settle on the bed beside her then and enjoy the feelings he had, but he couldn't yet. He knew Klaus had undressed and was getting on the bed. Aroused from watching, the hybrid was behind him, gripping his hips, intent on satisfying his own need. Stefan held his position on his hands and knees, waiting, while Rebekah, who lay on her back under him, planted a sloppy kiss on his mouth and she then just watched his face with interest and amusement.

After finishing, Klaus got up and went into the bathroom, closing the door; Stefan lay down on his back beside Rebekah.

"Do you like that at all?" Rebekah whispered to Stefan, turning to face him and running her fingers along his jaw.

"What?"

"What he just did to you. I watched your face. You had no expression. Do you like it?"

"No."

"Then why do you let him do it?"

"_Let_ him? He's a lot stronger than me. If I refused, he'd _force_ me to submit to him."

"No, he wouldn't."

"Hell yes, he would. Believe me."

"Oh."

"If I cooperate, then I have a little control over the situation and I don't get hurt," Stefan muttered. "What the hell, I admit I get some pleasure from _some_ of what we do."

"I certainly hope that includes what you and I just did. You really know how to give a girl a good time, you sweet thing. And you know what? I bet you _do_ like it when the situation is reversed with Nick, don't you?" she grinned. "You get to stick it to him."

Stefan had to grin at that, because it was true. He gave the pretty blonde vampire a little kiss on the lips. She responded with a little kiss in return, but she was tired and drunk and she closed her eyes. By the time Klaus came out of the bathroom, Rebecca, in fact, was asleep on her back.

Klaus knelt on the floor beside Stefan's side of the bed. "Thank you, love, for doing what you did for my sister," he whispered. "She needed a good romp in bed."

"No problem, Klaus. It certainly was fun, but it would have been nice if you had been a gentleman and left the room," Stefan whispered back. He also thought it would have been really nice if Klaus hadn't given in to the urge to use him, Stefan, with Rebekah watching. It was demeaning and disturbing.

"Don't be a prude, mate," Klaus grinned. "It's not the first time I've seem my sister with a man. And besides, I knew watching would be a great turn-on."

Stefan gave a snort and said nothing.

"Look, tomorrow, early, we'll change hotels," Klaus whispered so he wouldn't wake his sister, although it was unlikely. "If we leave the parking garage by the back way, and if you keep your cell phone off, we should be able to lose the witch. All right?"

"It sounds good to me," Stefan nodded. "I'm really tired of this vertigo business."

"I don't blame you," Klaus said. He leaned close and lightly touched his lips to Stefan's. The younger man reached up and put a hand behind the hybrid's neck, keeping the kiss going a moment longer. He didn't do it because he was in love with the man, but because he wanted to reassure Klaus that he was loyal and a "team player."

Klaus stood up, picked up the top sheet and duvet and decently covered the two on the bed. He said good night to Stefan before he turned out the lights and retired to the other bed to get a few hours of rest.

Stefan was relieved that they were going to leave this hotel, which was known to the witch. Never a dull moment with Klaus, he thought before drifting into the sleep of the undead.

A.N. I don't think that Stefan has seen the last of the dizziness and seizures. What do you think? Do you think I can get another chapter or two out of this?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Peter, are mine.

Stefan woke when someone touched his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see Klaus leaning over him.

"Up and at 'em, mate" Klaus said with a grin. "We want to get an early start before the witch gets up."

Stefan nodded and stretched. Beside him, Rebekah also stirred and sat up. The clock between the beds said it was five thirty in the morning. He saw Klaus sit on the other bed and phone the front desk to tell them he was checking out.

Stefan got up and headed for the bathroom. He was wary of taking a shower, so he used a wash cloth for cleaning purposes. He tried to ignore the fact that Rebekah came in and sat on the toilet to pee. All that champagne had gone through her kidneys. She pushed him out of her way in order to wash her hands. Then Klaus came into the little room. Three people trying to use the same facilities took some juggling.

Stefan spent the next few minutes shaving and brushing his teeth. When he walked naked out into the bedroom, he found Rebecca dressed in the slacks and shirt Gloria had given her. She was using his comb on her hair. Despite her having been dead in her coffin for all those years, her hair had grown longer. It was still like corn silk, her natural color. She was a very pretty girl and she knew it. However, she knew she could look better.

"I look so bland without make-up," she complained, staring at her image in the mirror. "I can't wait to go shopping."

Standing by the dresser, Stefan pulled on his underwear and was about to comment when he felt the dreaded first symptom, unfocused, wavering eyesight, followed by a knot of fear in his stomach.

"Damn it! Klaus!" he cried out. He stood there as panic washed over him. Despite the double vision, he could see the alarmed expression on Rebecca's face. Faces, actually. Two of them. The room shimmered and tilted. A wave of nausea swept through him and he gagged.

"It's all right, love," Klaus said, suddenly there with him, strong arms around his body.

Stefan could barely tell when Klaus lifted him off his feet and carried him, but then he became aware that he was sitting on the edge of the bed, which tilted crazily and then seemed to rear upward. He flung his arms out, trying to stabilize himself. He knew that he suddenly vomited some stomach acid. Along with his fear, he felt helpless and angry.

"Don't move, Stefan. Freeze. Curl up!" Klaus ordered, seated beside Stefan. He couldn't over-ride the witch's control of Stefan's mind, but he was able to compel Stefan to curl up in a ball instead of thrashing around wildly. He held him tightly, hugging Stefan's spastic and trembling body against him. He couldn't understand any of the garbled words Stefan seemed to be uttering.

"What's the matter with him?" Rebecca asked, alarmed. She knelt on the floor in front of her brother.

"Severe vertigo. Seizures," Klaus said angrily. "There's a witch out there, close by, who's doing this. That's why we're checking out of this place."

The brother and sister watched Stefan jerk around, although he did keep his arms tucked close to his body and his knees drawn up. He had dry heaves. He kicked out several times and Rebecca was careful not to be kicked. Stefan made a lot of strange noises, but no really loud cries that might cause someone to bring hotel security.

There were few things that caused Stefan real terror, but this had become one of them. He was frightened and the fear grew. For some reason, he began to feel like a small child, a terrified child. He began to cry, sobbing, tears streaming down his face. When the vertigo suddenly stopped, the terror didn't. He was able to focus his eyes and he saw

Klaus and Rebecca through his tears. In fear, he put his arms around Klaus and buried his face against his chest. Then the terror suddenly was also gone.

Klaus and Rebecca knew when it all stopped because Stefan sagged against the man. He was still, except for general trembling and some sniffing.

"All over, mate," Klaus said softly. He could feel Stefan's heart pounding. "Sit up now. That's it. That bastard is making it worse for you, isn't he? He's tearing you up."

Stefan nodded, using his arms to wipe the tears from his face. Rebecca handed him a tissue to blow his dripping nose.

"I can't take much more of this," he said, shaking his head. "He's adding to it. He made me feel like a little, terrified kid this time." He had a headache and his nose was stopped up from crying. "I'm sorry for carrying on like this. I just can't help it."

"I know you can't, mate," Klaus said, gently rubbing Stefan's back, where the muscles still trembled. He swore angrily, frustrated that he couldn't find the witch again. He felt he should have killed him when he faced him at the gas station, even if a bunch of people were watching.

Stefan felt the trembling stop, but he still harbored fear. He looked at Rebekah, who was staring at him with large eyes. His seizure had alarmed her, he could see.

"I'm all right now," he told her. He pulled away from Klaus and stood up. However, he swayed a bit unsteadily and Klaus took hold of his arm again. As Stefan seemed to get his balance, Klaus let go.

"We are getting the hell out of this hotel," Klaus muttered.

Stefan washed his face again and also his chest where saliva had dribbled. Back in the bedroom he finished dressing. He still felt shaky, but he figured there were probably many hours ahead before the witch attacked him again. If they changed hotels, perhaps they would be lucky and lose the cruel person.

Once away from the hotel, Klaus drove around a little in the hope of losing anyone tailing them. Then he headed for a hotel closer to shopping in the Loop part of the city. He and his companions were able to reserve a hotel room and to leave the car in the hotel parking garage. They found a place to have breakfast, although Stefan ate little. From there they went shopping. Stefan was in a fair mood by then, refusing to let the witch control his day.

They went to the up-scale stores on North Michigan Avenue and the men accompanied Rebecca as she chose clothes and bought accessories. It was a new experience for Stefan, but he was amazed at the enthusiasm the girl displayed as she showed him and Klaus the clothes she tried on. Sometimes they gave approval, sometimes not. Klaus paid for whatever she chose, including some reasonable jewelry at Tiffany's. Both men ended up carrying shopping bags for her.

They had lunch at a restaurant and headed for more stores. Stefan had had enough of shopping. He especially had had enough of Rebekah's constant excited talking. She was wearing his ears out. He told Klaus he needed a break, that he wanted to go out by himself for a while.

"Keep your phone off," Klaus reminded him. "But call me later so we can meet up."

It was with relief that Stefan left the brother and sister. As he walked along Michigan Avenue, a woman with a shopping bag caught his eye. They stopped to stare at each other. Elena or Katherine? Stefan wondered with both surprise and alarm. It had to be Katherine. In fact, he saw the broad grin on her face and knew for sure. They came together and talked briefly. He got the impression that she had left Mystic Falls and was traveling west, Chicago being on her way. He also got the impression that she didn't like the life he was leading these days.

After leaving Katherine, Stefan wandered around and finally ended up at the shore of Lake Michigan where there was a marina. He looked at the boats as he walked along and then stopped as he spotted a couple of men talking by a boat. The white-haired man with a cane looked just like his baby brother Peter! Yes, he had to be Peter, who had already been an old man when he was turned.

In a few minutes, the man came along the dock toward the parking lot and spied Stefan. Surprised, they hugged each other. They then went to a coffee shop where they sat and talked for over an hour. Stefan found that Peter had been in Mystic Falls and knew from Damon what was going on. Stefan impressed upon Peter that Klaus was a danger to Elena and he asked Peter not to call Damon and tell him where he and Klaus were.

After this visit between the brothers, Stefan phoned Klaus to find out where he and Rebekah were and he went to join them.

"No trouble from the witch?" Klaus asked as they went to the hotel where their room was finally ready.

"None, thank God," Stefan said with a look of relief. "I think we have finally lost the bastard."

A. N. Poor Stefan, wrong again. I think one more chapter might do it for this story. Or maybe more? I have another possible idea.


	5. Chapter 5

VERTIGO 5

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters are mine.

A.N. Damon and Elena come to town. Damon gets information about the cause of the

vertigo seizures.

Thanks for the reviews and the "favorite story" choices. They really encourage a

person to write more!

They're Here!

The move to the new hotel, where the trio had a small suite, proved to be an excellent one. They ate some meals at the hotel and they went out to take advantage of what the city had to offer. They went to shows and several clubs. They avoided Gloria's club because they suspected "Stefan's" witch probably had that place under surveillance. They had told Gloria about the vertigo attacks. Klaus knew that Gloria was looking into possibilities to help him with making hybrids, but she had not yet said she had learned anything new.

On the third day after the last attack, while Rebekah spent time in the hotel spa, Klaus took Stefan to what Stefan had thought was his own secret apartment. Stefan realized he did have a vague memory of taking Klaus there. He must have been drunk at the time.

The visit proved to be a shock to Stefan because when he looked into the secret closet where he kept the long list of names of people he had killed (the ones he knew the names of), he found Elena standing like a trapped animal right against the "wall of shame." They stared silently at each other while various strong and conflicting emotions ran through him. Finally, Stefan grabbed an old bottle of good wine and closed the door most of the way. He was angry at her, but he just could not reveal her presence to Klaus. Worst of all, he knew Damon had to be in the city, too. Inwardly, he cursed his stubborn, stupid brother and stubborn, foolish Elena, who still made his heart skip beats.

Things got even worse that night. With Rebekah shopping with a new friend, Klaus and Stefan went back to Gloria's as she was getting ready to close the club up to see what she had learned. Music blared and the few customers still there talked loudly. And then who should walk into the back of the place and catch Stefan's eye? His damned brother Damon!

Stefan told Klaus he wanted to try to grab a quick "bite" and he went out back where he angrily confronted Damon. His brother then went inside to distract Klaus. Stefan found himself facing Elena. Despite the fact that she hugged him and made his heart ache and made him want to stay in her arms and kiss her forever, she tried to stick him with a vervain syringe. Stefan knocked it aside and then angrily told Elena he didn't love her anymore. It was over, finished and she needed to go home. So, the Damon/Elena plan to kidnap him didn't work. How foolish of them to try!

Stefan had a stormy expression on his face when he went back into the bar. He expected Damon to be there, but he wasn't. The place was empty except for Klaus, Gloria and her bouncer.

"What's the matter, love?" Klaus asked, slipping his arm over Stefan's shoulder. He could swear his young friend was as tense as a snake ready to strike. Klaus felt a little tense himself, but he didn't think Stefan noticed.

"I got into an argument with someone. It's nothing. What happened here?" Stefan asked, looking at a broken stool and a scorched piece of wood. He could see that it looked like a stake. Had Damon tried to kill Klaus or vice versa? "Did someone get staked here while I was gone?"

"No, but not because I didn't try. Gloria seemed to think it would sully her place," Klaus said, eyeing Gloria. "So, I let him go."

Stefan looked at Gloria, who raised an eyebrow and gave him a knowing look.

Klaus gave Stefan's shoulders a squeeze and Stefan was glad Elena didn't wear perfume that Klaus could have smelled. Still, Klaus did smell something on him.

"You found someone to dine on?" he asked sniffing.

"I changed my mind. Her two brothers came along," Stefan lied. He didn't want to say that he had fed, when his breath would have told Klaus he hadn't.

"Later, then. Gloria is closing up." Klaus then said to Gloria, "Good night. Sorry about the bar stool and the little fracas." He decided to forgive her for interfering in his attempt to stake Damon. Perhaps it was for the best. Stefan might have become really difficult if Damon had died.

When they got back to the hotel, Rebekah was not there. With a little time on their hands, Klaus turned his attention to Stefan, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat from his earlier upset.

"You and I haven't had much private time together," he said, hanging over the back of the chair Stefan had just settled into. He ruffled Stefan's hair and the younger man pulled away slightly.

"That's because your sister is usually with us and you have encouraged me to make it with her if she wanted. And she has wanted it. And I noticed that you haven't exactly kept your distance," Stefan pointed out gruffly as he used the remote to change channels on the television. He was still annoyed with his brother and Elena. Damn them! They both could have been killed. He tried to push his emotions aside. He wasn't really in the mood to deal with Klaus, either.

Klaus ran his hands down the front of Stefan's shirt and he kissed the top of his head. "I'm in the mood for you to do something for me that I don't like my sister to watch. I only do the _manly _thing in front of her. But she's not here right now. I seem to have an itch up where I can't scratch. I think you have something that will reach it." The hybrid's hand slid down to the crotch of Stefan's jeans, the fingers caressing.

Stefan was both amused and scornful of the way Klaus was hinting at what he wanted. He could have just come out and said it in four words or less. If Klaus wanted to take the submissive role, it was all right with Stefan. As he had indicated to Rebekah, he didn't mind "sticking it to Klaus."

"I can accommodate you, but you know Rebekah might return and catch you in a compromised position," he said with a smirk. He knew, and surely Klaus did too, that Rebekah was aware of her brother's various ways of getting sexual satisfaction.

"I'm willing to take the chance, love. Come scratch my itch."

Stefan did as he was told and he damn well enjoyed doing it. Still quietly fuming over the actions of Damon and Elena, he was rough with Klaus, but the hybrid didn't complain. To Klaus' relief, his sister did not return at this time. The two men then ended up showering together in the glass shower stall this hotel suite included. At one point, Klaus dropped the bar of soap.

"Oops," he said, pretending innocence and he bent over to pick it up. He expected his young friend to take advantage of him and, again, Stefan accommodated him. They were out of the shower and dressed in jeans when Rebekah finally let herself into the suite. She was excited, as usual, about what she had done with her evening and didn't ask what the men had done with theirs. Luckily she didn't ask for Stefan's services because, for the time being, he was used up and not interested.

The trio continued to stay in Chicago and Stefan's nagging fear of the vertigo-causing witch began to fade. He didn't see or hear from Damon in the two days following their encounter. Klaus didn't ask him to rip out any more throats, although he did kill a woman during a feeding. He added her name to his list in his apartment. He had added other names and one of them was Andie Starr's.

Klaus got a phone call from Gloria who said she had talked to someone who had an idea that might help. He and Stefan went to the club that evening without Rebekah. It was late and Gloria was beginning to ease customers out of the place. Before she could talk to Klaus and Stefan, she got a phone call.

Gloria was surprised to hear that it was Damon Salvatore. She didn't say his name so he would guess that Klaus and Stefan were there. She listened as he quickly told her about a letter he had received. She was interested and thought it would interest Stefan.

"Do you want to talk to your brother?" she asked Damon in a hushed voice. There was still a lot of noise in the bar, so it was unlikely that Klaus could overhear.

"Ask him if he will talk to me," Damon said.

In a moment, Stefan was on the phone. Damon had to suspect Klaus might be listening in.

"Where are you?" Stefan asked gruffly. He was ready to be angry if Damon and Elena were still in Chicago.

"At home."

"Good. What do you want?"

"I got a letter, a note, and I just told Gloria what it said. Maybe it can help you."

"Help me with what?"

"The seizures or whatever," Damon said and he read the brief note. "YOUR BROTHER KILLED MY SISTER. HE IS SUFFERING SEIZURES NOW. IT WILL SLOWLY DESTROY HIM."

Stefan was silent for a moment. "Damn! I don't know who the note refers to or who wrote it or what sister."

"What's with these seizures, Stefan?"

"Don't worry about it. It's not your concern. _Who_ told you I was in Chicago?"

"Katherine. She's there. Or she was four days ago. She may not be now. She said she was afraid of your buddy, which is understandable."

"Katherine," Stefan repeated to Klaus. It was a bit of a relief for Stefan. He had worried that Peter had betrayed him. "Okay, Damon. Maybe Gloria can do something with the information, so it's good you told her. Thanks. Nevertheless, I want you to stay away from me. Do you understand?"

"Fine. Take care of yourself, little brother." Damon said.

With the phone call ended, Stefan took a deep breath and let it out. "So the bastard behind the vertigo witch is not giving up," he said to Klaus. "If he doesn't know where I am now, he'll persist in trying to find me."

"We'll leave this city soon, mate," Klaus said with concern. He looked at Gloria, who looked at Stefan with sympathy.

A few minutes later, after the last of the patrons had left, Stefan and Klaus sat at the bar waiting to see what Gloria had for them. Stefan took a drink of his beer, gagged and spewed it across the bar. Panic hit him as the whole room tipped.

"No! No!" he yelped, slamming a fist on the bar and then grabbing tightly to the edge of the polished wood in a useless attempt to keep his balance.

As Gloria stared in astonishment, Klaus reached out and grabbed Stefan as he flung himself backward off the bar stool. He put his arms around the young man and tried to compel him to curl into a ball, but Stefan seemed to be beyond reach this time. He struggled and thrashed around so much that Klaus had to put him on the floor. Dinner from earlier came up. The terrified, crying child came back.

"Where's it coming from? DO something!" Klaus screamed at Gloria, sensing that this was the time to do it, if she could. Otherwise, he was going to punch Stefan in the head as he had done once before to knock him out.

Gloria reacted. She sent a powerful backlash along the line of power reaching from the other witch to Stefan. She could sense it and she used it.

"Go!" she ordered Klaus as Stefan stopped his violent thrashing and collapsed. "He's out there now. He's down. Find him!"

Klaus ran out into the night, his enhanced eyesight and hearing searching for the man on the deserted street. He both heard and saw what he was looking for. On the sidewalk, down at the next street corner were two men, one standing and one lying on the sidewalk. In a flash, Klaus was there. The white man eyed him with fear and drew a stake from under his jacket.

"I'm impervious to stakes, my friend. So why don't you just stand there like a good boy," Klaus said in a cold, menacing tone.

The man backed away a few steps and stood there tensely as Klaus bent over the fallen black man. The witch was awake, but he looked stunned and in pain. Klaus talked to both men, threatening and questioning them quickly, trying to learn as much as he could about who they were working for. He couldn't compel either of them, but they parted with a bit of information. He quickly learned what he thought he needed to know and then he reached out, and in a second he had snapped the witch's neck. Luckily, there were no other people watching at this time of night.

The white man gasped and stood ready to fight, even though he knew he couldn't win. Klaus grinned at him. "Tell your boss that I will come after him and his friends and any of his family I can find if my friend suffers even one more attack," he said. "Do you understand? Repeat what I just said."

Stuttering with both anger and fear, the man did repeat it.

"And you will do it?" Klaus asked with the hiss of a deadly snake.

"Yes. I swear," the man said.

"Good," Klaus said, nodding and he again moved in a flash, back toward the club.

Back inside the club, he found Gloria kneeling beside Stefan, who had not yet gotten up. He joined her. The young man was shaking, but he was otherwise still. His face was pale and wet with tears. There was vomit all over him as he lay sprawled on his back, his eyes closed.

"I think it's finally over, love," Klaus said in an encouraging tone as he laid a hand on Stefan's damp forehead.

Stefan opened his eyes and looked at the hybrid. "Promise?" he asked and he tried to smile. His voice was hoarse and his teeth chattered, even though he tried to control it. Each time, it seemed to take him longer to recover.

"Yup. The wicked witch is dead. You're home free. Are you hurt?"

"No. I'm just…just exhausted. Wrung out. Tell me you learned something this time before you killed him," Stefan said hopefully. The last thing he wanted was for the man behind the attacks to hire another witch. That man had to be stopped.

"I did indeed, you'll be glad to hear. Come on now, mate. Sit up," Klaus said with false cheer and he helped Stefan sit. He could see a few bumps and scrapes caused by the thrashing around, but Stefan was otherwise all right. Klaus knew it was just the young man's confidence and pride that were damaged. Plus, the violence of the seizures seemed to drain his energy. He would recover quickly now, Klaus was sure.

Stefan looked at his clothes with disgust. He knew that the terror, crying and devastating vertigo sapped his strength and made him fearful, more so each time it happened. His insides were still quivering. He had been through so much in his life, but this had been different. He prayed it was finished. It had to be finished.

He stood up and because he was such a smelly mess, he and Klaus decided that they would leave. They would come back the next day and talk to Gloria about her plan to find the missing locket.

They didn't know that the next evening would see their plans change radically. Gloria would learn Stefan's secret, that he was keeping things from Klaus. Stefan could not foresee that Gloria would torture him and that Katherine would kill her to rescue him. And Stefan certainly had no way of knowing that a return to Mystic Falls was in his immediate future.

He also didn't know that the man behind the "vertigo witches" decided it was prudent to call off his revenge for the death of his sister. Once the man learned that he had indirectly caused the death of another witch and that his own relatives might be targeted, he decided it was over.

A.N. I have an idea for a further chapter. Should I explore it? Should Stefan have any more seizures? What do you all think?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

N/A Stefan and Klaus are back in Mystic Falls from Chicago. They assume Stefan is free of the attacks because Klaus killed the witch near Gloria's place

Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out, but I was writing a couple of other stories. I had to write them while they were on my mind.

A reminder: For those of you reading both "Vertigo" and "The Implant", all of the Vertigo attacks take place chronologically _before _any of the Implant chapters. Thank you for the reviews. It's great to have encouragement from other fans of TVD.

"Home Again"

Damon was relieved to have his brother back in Mystic Falls. At least he didn't have to wonder where he was. Now he just had to worry about who he might be killing. Stefan was not the same guy as he had been prior to his leaving with Klaus. Also, one never knew what women he would bring home to feed on or to have sex with.

While Damon didn't mind too much having the snarky Stefan home again, he didn't like that Klaus' sister Rebekah had moved into the house, too. She had tricked Elena into inviting her in. He accepted that she would likely be there for a while, hopefully, a short while.

There were moments when he actually had a real conversation with her. It was during one of these that he asked, "Hey, did you ever see Stefan have one of those dizziness attacks? He told me it made him throw up and fall down."

"Yeah, I did. It scared the crap out of me. He was spastic as hell and crying like a baby. If Nick hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have done."

Alarmed, Damon realized that there had been much more to the attacks than Stefan had said. His brother didn't weep easily and the spasticity sounded more like an epileptic seizure.

"What did your brother do for him then?" he asked with concern.

She told him about the one episode she had witnessed, finishing by saying, "Poor Stefan was so scared. He was crying, but not very loud. I mean, he wasn't screaming, but it was surprising that he wasn't. And then it all suddenly ended. It took a lot out of him, I think. Hell, it took a lot out of me. I just wasn't prepared for it, you know?"

"I can guess," Damon said, nodding. "Stefan said a witch caused all that and Klaus killed the witch."

"I think there were two witches. One before the other," Rebekah said, sipping the drink she had poured for herself, and she told him that Klaus had killed both of them.

So, Stefan had a bad time with the seizures, Damon thought. I guess he was too embarrassed to tell me the details. I can't blame him. And Klaus helped him. That damned hybrid has a soft side. Maybe Stefan was more comfortable with Klaus than I thought.

Rebekah moved closer to where Damon sat and she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps we can be friends, huh?"

"Who knows what the future holds," Damon said, wary of her, but not oblivious to her good looks and curvaceous body. She was wearing some subtle and expensive perfume that he liked. For the moment, he did nothing to encourage her and she finally moved away.

She set down her glass. "I think I'll go to the town center and see if I can talk to someone about attending the school. See you later." Without further word, she left the room.

Damon heard the front door shut. He listened to the sounds of the house and heard no one. He suspected Stefan had left the house, too, perhaps not wanting to deal with the blonde girl. Ah, peace and quiet.

Then he heard some noise and he thought that someone was in the house after all. He got up and walked out into the hall where he stood listening. He heard another noise, a small thud. It was upstairs somewhere. At this point, he wouldn't have been surprised to find almost anyone lurking in the big house.

He silently zipped up the stairs and stood still on the landing, listening and searching with acute senses. Then he heard some odd noises and knew they were coming from up on the third floor. Was Stefan still here? What was he doing? Again, he zipped up the next flight of stairs and walked to the closed door of Stefan's room. Something was going on in there, but it didn't sound like two people having sex.

He tried the doorknob and found the door unlocked. Opening it, he saw his brother on the floor, writhing and making distressed noises. "Damn!" Damon muttered. Stefan was having another one of those seizures. How was that possible if the witches were dead? Easily, if a new witch was doing it! He saw that Stefan's leg was caught under a fairly heavy side table. If it tipped over, it would fall on him and the lamp would likely hit him in the face.

Damon moved quickly to grab one of Stefan's arms and pull him safely away. Thrashing around, Stefan wrenched his arm away with a strong pull, but his eyes were closed, so he didn't know it was Damon there. The younger brother had vomited onto the floor and it was on his shirt. There was a cut on his forehead. He had tears on his face and he made odd crying sounds of terror, which sent a wave of compassion through Damon.

Kneeling down, Damon reached out and tried to gather Stefan to him as Rebekah had said Klaus had done. He knew a person should not try to restrain someone having an epileptic seizure, but this was different, wasn't it? According to Rebekah, Klaus had done it for Stefan, so he should try. This wasn't easy. It was like trying to hold a strong, squirming octopus. Damon talked to him, but he sensed Stefan wasn't hearing him. Suddenly, Stefan went limp, sagging in Damon's arms and leaning heavily against him. He could feel his brother trembling and could hear his racing heart.

"Stefan?"

"Uh," the younger brother grunted against Damon's shirt.

"You're all right now," Damon said, hoping it was true. He was now sitting on the floor, holding Stefan tightly.

Stefan raised his head and looked at Damon, the pupils in his eyes so dilated that the dark green of the irises barely showed. Stefan just stared up at him for a long moment, his face pale and confusion in his eyes. Damon had the disturbing feeling that Stefan didn't know who he was. Then the younger brother's eyes roved around the room before finally coming back to Damon. He pushed himself slowly out of Damon's grasp until the two of them were sitting side by side on the floor.

"I don't believe this," Stefan whispered hoarsely, shaking his head. "I really thought it was over. That I was home free. I was damned wrong, wasn't I?"

"Looks like," Damon agreed. "How do you feel?"

"Headache. Sore. The usual," Stefan said, touching the cut on his forehead. He automatically licked the blood from his fingers. He sniffed and looked at his shirt. "I'm tired of washing vomit from my clothes. I'm tired of these seizures! I'm tired of this whole damned shit, Damon!"

"If it was me, I'd be damned tired of it, too."

Stefan drew his knees up, rested his arms across his knees and put his head down on his arms. Damon reached out and rubbed his back, trying to reassure him. He could still feel a tremor in the muscles, although his heart rate was slowing now that the adrenaline had stopped racing through his system.

"What are you going to do?" Damon asked.

Stefan lifted his head and ran the fingers of both hands through his hair. "What can I do? I don't know what to do. I'll have to tell everybody at school that I'm having seizures and for them to just leave me alone 'til it's over. I'll have to quit driving. I was enjoying driving the Porsche again. That didn't last long." There was bitterness in his tone.

"You don't have to go to school. By now, nobody expects you to be there. Or hardly ever," Damon pointed out with a snort.

"I _do_ need to go. Klaus' orders." Stefan snapped with angry frustration. He was very tired of being victimized. "_You_ can drive me to school, big brother," he growled at Damon.

"_You_ can ride the damned school bus," Damon said, seeing that the brotherly moment was over. "And get yourself cleaned up. You're a mess." He stood up and left the room, heading for his own room to change his own shirt. Despite his abruptness with Stefan, he was still shaken by the seizure. Whoever was causing it needed to be stopped. As for getting to school, he knew Stefan could walk there fairly quickly. Mystic Falls was a small, compact town.

Downstairs in the study, he went to the computer and brought up a file he had started early in the summer. He had burned most of the newspaper clippings sent to him regarding kills likely made by Stefan and Klaus, but he had the information on file. The chances were good that the name of the sister whose death had caused this problem was in the file. As he had done several times before, he studied the names and dates and locations.

He was still at it when Stefan came into the study. Damon looked up at him as he came near the desk. His brother had showered and put on clean clothes.

"Thank you," Stefan said gruffly, looking a bit embarrassed. "I mean, for checking up on me up there. How did you know? Was I screaming or something?"

Damon shook his head. "No. You knocked over a chair. I heard it when I thought no one was in the house but me, so I checked it out. When you told me about the seizures before, you kind of understated it."

"Yeah, I did. It must have surprised you to see me like that."

"It upset me, but I wasn't all that surprised. Rebekah told me about the seizure she saw."

"Oh. Rebekah's a bit of a blabber-mouth."

"It's over. Forget it. Look at this. It's the info I gathered tracking you. I'll bet one of these names is the sister of the man you want to find," Damon said, and he moved aside so Stefan could read the list. In fact, he relinquished the chair to him.

Stefan read the list and he suppressed the guilt he felt. "It could be any of these first few," he said.

"What about that bunch in the mountains? There were women there according to the newpapers."

"Except for Ray, who tried to savage you, I didn't kill any of them. Klaus tried to convert them to hybrids and they all died."

"That must have pissed him off royally."

"It did, but first, it was really devastating to him. He really thought he had all he needed to do it and it meant a lot to him. I suspected right then that the failure was the fact that Elena was alive. The fact that she was also contaminated by your blood might have made a difference, too. I don't know."

"But Klaus didn't give up, did he?"

"No. He was hoping Gloria in Chicago might be able to help. Gloria…found out that Elena was still alive, but she never got the chance to tell Klaus."

"Why not?"

"She disappeared. Took off," Stefan said, lying.

"Did you kill her?"

"No, Damon, I didn't. Why do you always think the worst of me? You put me down if I show my 'good' side and you put me down if I show my other side. I can't win with you. But you know what? I don't really give a damn what you think of me."

"That's no way to talk to someone who's trying to find out who's behind the seizures. If you don't want me looking for him, say so," Damon chided.

"I'm not going to tell you not to look. Do what you want. You will anyway," his younger brother growled.

Stefan got up from the chair and walked from the room. He had been going to ask how Damon had gotten all the names on the list, but he refused to give him the satisfaction and the opportunity to gloat.

He automatically walked out the front door and headed for the red Porsche parked in the driveway. Then he remembered that he shouldn't drive. Another attack could put him in an accident and wreck the classic car. Well, he might as well put it in the garage again. He got in and carefully drove to the garage, pressed the button to open one of the doors and drove inside. He turned off the engine and sat there thinking.

When this last attack had first started he had felt astonishment and then rage and then terror. He remembered the terrible wave of vertigo, loud ringing in his ears and a sharp pain behind his eyes. He didn't recall falling from his chair or knocking it over. He didn't recall vomiting. He had been consumed by horrible, swooping vertigo and then it had stopped, leaving him limp and shaken and fuzzy-minded.

When he had opened his eyes, he had seen Damon. That had confused his fuzzy senses. It should have been Klaus holding him close, but he looked like Damon. A look around had then told him he was in his room in the house, so when he had looked up at Damon again, he had known he was not hallucinating. That had been so weird. Damon was holding him with such a concerned look on his face.

The truth was that Damon cared about him, just as he cared about Damon. Each of them tended to fight that truth and he knew it. They were brothers and that blood was a strong bond. We're like Klaus and his family in the coffins, in a way, he thought. We fight and feel anger and sometimes hatred, but the tie is important to us. It's very strong. We're family.

Suddenly, Klaus' influence over him made him push away the feelings that had snuck through from deep inside. Those ghostly feelings from his so-called "good" side. Abruptly, the sentimental thoughts were gone and he felt contempt for Damon, his interfering brother who was trying to make a move on Elena. So what? He didn't want Elena anymore, did he?

He didn't, he was sure. Well, mostly sure. And what did it matter? She couldn't really love him anymore, could she? She knew he had killed innocent people this summer. She saw the list of kills in his Chicago apartment. He had said nasty, hurtful things to her. He had nearly ripped out her throat at school that first night back. Sure, she knew most of it was Klaus' doing. Klaus, who had totally ruined his life. It didn't matter whose fault it was, the main point was that he had lost Elena's love and trust. He was now seriously damaged goods, and he was once again having vertigo seizures. How was that possible?

The next day at school, Stefan went to the classes he had chosen, some of them the same as Elena. A couple of days went by without any more seizures and he began to relax. However, his relationships with Elena and his brother were strained at best.

Two days after the seizure that happened in his room, he was sitting in the school cafeteria with Rebekah while Elena, Bonnie, Matt and Caroline sat at a nearby table eating lunch. Stefan had not been eating much for lunch while at school because of his wariness about possible seizures, but he did have a tasty chocolate pudding and a soft drink. Rebekah beside him ate enough for two people.

Then, Stefan felt the first wave of dizziness. He gasped and swore and those at the table looked at him. "Seizure! Everyone just leave me alone! I'll…"

He threw himself backward, knocking over his chair, grabbing a boy beside him and knocking him over too. Both their food trays were knocked off the table and most of the food landed on Stefan as he hit the floor. Other students, including Rebekah, anywhere near him quickly moved away, dragging their chairs with them. In fact, one boy had the smarts to move the table before Stefan could smash his head against the leg of it.

In moments, more than a hundred students were standing around gawking at the boy writhing on the floor, making weird sounds, food spilled onto him. Many of them groaned or gagged when Stefan vomited what little he had had to eat and drink.

There were several teachers there also, including Sandra Reynolds. Like the other teachers at the school, she had been told that Stefan had warned that he had seizures and that it was best just to leave him alone until it passed and he would be all right. She saw that he was banging his head on the floor, so she knelt down near him and put her hands under his head, hoping to cushion it.

Rebekah and Elena were both close by, but they didn't touch him. He had told everyone not to touch, so they didn't. The two girls, plus Bonnie, knew what the cause was. Bonnie ignored the "don't touch" order and laid a hand on Stefan's jerking thigh and stared off into space, trying to see if she could trace back the spell being cast. She glimpsed a redheaded woman just before the connection was broken and Stefan grew still on the floor.

"All right, everyone," Alaric said. He had come in just at the last of it. "It's over. Finish your lunches and go to class." He watched most of the kids drift away. He knelt beside Sandra.

"How is he?" he asked Sandra.

"Groggy, I think. Stefan? Can you hear me?" she asked, stroking his forehead.

Elena knelt beside him and called his name also.

Stefan heard them and he finally opened his eyes. He felt so embarrassed that this had happened at school. He had no idea if he had been swearing or crying. He worried that he had wet himself, although he never had. He wished he was at home where no one but Damon or Rebekah had seen. Instead, there were Elena and Bonnie. He saw Sandra and Ric.

"I'm all right," he murmured and he pressed his hands to his head, which ached.

"Can you sit up?" Ric asked, holding out his hand.

Stefan took it and sat up. He saw that his shirt was soiled with food, but he hadn't wet himself. With Ric's help, he also stood up. The teacher held onto him as he swayed for a moment. All around were a multitude of students, so many eyes staring at him. I'll never hear the end of this, he thought, staring at the messy floor. There was a piece of pizza stuck to his shoe.

"Stefan," Bonnie said in a hushed voice. "I saw a face. A red-headed woman. But she was gone before I could get a fix on her."

Stefan nodded. "Thanks for trying."

"Do you want to go home?" Ric asked. "I don't have a class for half an hour. I can drive you."

Stefan looked at the concerned faces of Elena and then Ric. He should stay, he knew, but he really didn't feel up to it. He could likely borrow a clean shirt, but again, he had lost his enthusiasm for school for this day. "Yeah, I'd like to go home. I'll take you up on the ride, Ric." He didn't care what students thought if they heard him call a teacher by his first name.

When they got to the house, Ric walked to the front door with Stefan, who thanked him for the ride and his concern. Ric hadn't known the source of the problem, but Stefan had told him during the drive. The older man showed concern and sympathy, although Stefan knew that he disapproved of the real reason behind it all, namely the killing Stefan had done. Having delivered Stefan to his home, Ric left.

Damon had come into the house by way of the back door, having walked from the Lockwood grounds where he and Mason the ghost had been in the cave. Hearing voices, he headed for the front. He spotted Ric walking away before Stefan closed the front door. He and his brother met near the front stairs. They looked at each other, one soiled with food and vomit, the other bloody from being impaled by spears where the cave was booby-trapped.

"I can see what happened to you," Damon said. "Don't ask what happened to me. Okay?"

"Fine," Stefan muttered and he headed up the stairs, followed by Damon. The latter went into his room and Stefan went on up to his room to shower and put on clean clothes. Stefan did wonder what had happened to Damon. It was obvious that he had been stabbed, and more than once. What had he been up to? Who had he clashed with? He had said not to ask, so Stefan decided he wouldn't ask. If Damon wanted to be secretive, let him.

It bothered Damon that his brother had obviously had one of those seizures, and apparently it had happened in the school cafeteria, since he had various foods smeared onto his clothes and in his hair. He could only imagine how humiliated Stefan must feel.

After peeling off his torn and bloodied shirt and his bloodied pants and underwear, Damon stepped into the shower and scrubbed himself clean. He had a soreness in his abdomen and bruises on his skin where the wounds had been. He knew they would be there for a while.

When he went downstairs, he got himself a fortifying drink and sat down to think. He didn't know what the cave drawings shown him by Mason meant, but the Lockwood ghost had guessed that some of them were runes, an old alphabet of sorts from northern Europe. The only people in Mystic Falls that were likely to be able to decipher them were Ric and witchy Bonnie. Damon thought he would ask Ric first.

Stefan stayed in his room for a while, adding to his most recent journal. He was careful what he wrote because he was suspicious that his brother or even Elena had snuck peeks at the journals. Still, he tried to get down the facts without his emotional response to some of what had happened. He definitely put down the facts that two witches had given him the vertigo attacks and the epilepsy-like seizures. He noted that each of the witches had used similar, but different versions of the dizziness, the horrible vertigo, headaches, confusion and real fear.

He now realized that the new witch seemed to present him with slightly different symptoms and yet she obviously knew what the previous witch had done to him. Should he be going after the man whose sister he had killed? What would Klaus want him to do or not do? The hybrid was out of town and Stefan hadn't heard from him in several days. Supposedly, he had taken some of Elena's blood and was hunting for more werewolves to convert to hybrids.

It was depressing to Stefan that he had tried so hard to keep Klaus from finding out Elena was still alive and now he knew. The fallout of the discovery had not been as bad as Stefan had feared it would be. All Klaus wanted was for Elena to be protected so that he could have some of her blood whenever he wanted it.

Stefan had the job of protecting her. That should have been an enjoyable job. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Klaus had killed Stefan's love for her. Or at least, he had made Stefan bury his feelings so that now he felt almost nothing for her. However, whenever he saw Damon talking to her, a flicker of jealousy arose. Was that good or bad?

Another problem was Stefan's need for fresh human blood. For years he had gotten by with animal blood. Then Damon and circumstances has made him turn to blood bank blood. Now, here he was back on the fresh stuff, thanks to Klaus. Being in little Mystic Falls was cramping his style. He couldn't go around biting and sometimes killing. When he was hungry, not killing was hard. He could get _so_ high, feel _so_ powerful, when he ripped. Suppressing that was hard.

If only he could get free of the witch. Damn, if only he could get free of Klaus. If only he could recapture what Klaus had taken from him. He knew that deep down, he wanted that back.

AN I hope you liked this chapter. I have an idea for one, possibly two, more chapters for this story. The witch will take a different approach to tormenting Stefan. Please review! I love reviews.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. This version of Mrs. Flowers is different from in the books.

"Right in Front of Mrs. Flowers"

A/N This chapter takes place while Katherine is trying to wake Mikael, and Damon has returned home. With Mrs. Theophilia Flowers visiting in the house, Stefan has a seizure.

(BACKSTORY: Following the Council meeting, there was the confrontation between Damon and Elena and Ric out in front of the Lockwood house. Damon broke Ric's neck. Damon was angry with everyone and ready to leave Mystic Falls. He considered just closing up the house and going away. Remembering that his brother Peter [the Old Man] had recommended his great granddaughter Theophilia Salvatore Flowers, a retired nurse, as housekeeper and custodian, Damon phoned her.

She visited for two days and was left at the house alone when Damon took off with Katherine [with Jeremy in the trunk.] While she was there alone, Elena stopped by and met her. Also, Stefan returned to Mystic Falls, stopped by the house and met her.

Her visit was just to see if she was interested in the job. She left town to return to her home in Richmond before Damon returned. He came home and was surprised to find out that Stefan and Klaus were back in town and that Stefan was using his room again. He was also stunned to have Rebekah move in.

He called Mrs. Flowers and told her the job was on hold, because she might be in danger if she came to live in the house in which there were now three vampires, one of them an unpredictable Original.)

It was a Friday afternoon, with both Stefan and Rebekah in school. Damon was home alone and on the computer when he received a phone call. It turned out to be Mrs. Flowers. She informed him that she was at a hotel out by the highway near Mystic Falls. She wanted to find an earring that she was sure was in the downstairs bedroom somewhere or in the vacuum cleaner she had used to clean the room. She had meant to call him the week before, but she had been busy and the earring had only sentimental value.

Because he figured the house would be empty and safe for a couple of hours yet, he told her to come on over. He had found her to be a pleasant person, although a bit business-like. She had been the director of a nursing home. He didn't mind seeing her again.

In fifteen minutes she drove into the driveway and found a place to park her Mercedes. He saw her and had the door open when she came onto the porch. The gray-haired lady greeted him and offered her hand, which he shook. He offered her a drink, a choice of liquor, wine, coffee or tea. She opted for tea and they both headed for the kitchen. Damon was aware that the place looked dusted and vacuumed because the maid service had been there just days before. Mrs. Flowers noticed the cleanliness.

"The cleaning people have been here, I see. Did they use the vacuum?" she asked with concern. They might have emptied it.

"They used their own, so ours hasn't been emptied," Damon said, although he didn't know if Stefan or Rebekah had seen fit to empty it. Extremely unlikely.

"I'd like to look for the earring before that cup of tea, if you don't mind. Let me check the room first and then I'll empty the vacuum," she said.

After putting water on the stove to heat, Damon helped her look for the earring in the downstairs bedroom, which Zach had outfitted for any guest who used a wheelchair. For several years now, the room had been used for storage. This was the room the woman wanted to use, because she had a troublesome knee. After searching the bedroom and bathroom, they didn't find the earring.

Next, they hauled the heavy-duty vacuum cleaner out of the utility closet. It was an older model with a bag. They took it out onto the back patio, spread newspapers around and opened the bag. They carefully searched through the fine particles of dust and dirt. They found some coins and other small things.

"Here it is!" the woman cried with relief, picking a small item from the dust.

After they cleaned up the mess they had made, Mrs. Flowers made a cup of tea and they went to the study. Damon poured himself a shot of bourbon. They sat and talked about what was going on, although Damon didn't feel free to say too much.

"I'm quite interested in the job, Damon, but I understand that you don't want me here yet."

"I'm concerned about your safety. My brother is here and so is a young woman who is also a vampire. I don't trust her. In fact, right now, I don't trust my own brother."

"I'm sorry to hear that. He's family."

They continued to chat and Damon lost track of the time. Suddenly, he heard voices and the front door opened. Elena and Bonnie walked in, followed by Stefan. They all came to the door of the study. They all stared at the woman.

Damon stood, as did Mrs. Flowers. "I understand you have met my brother Stefan and Miss Elena Gilbert, Mrs. Flowers. The other young lady is Miss Bonnie Bennett."

The three young people greeted the older woman.

"Are you moving in now, Mrs. Flowers?" Elena asked. She was still the lease holder of the house.

"No, not yet. I left something here and I came to get it," Theophilia said. "Damon and I have been chatting, but I must get going."

Stefan suddenly swore and yelped, "No! Let me be! Dammit!"

They all stared in stunned surprise as he jerked wildly to one side, his arms waving around, and he fell to the floor. Per usual, as his world tilted and spun around, the contents of his stomach came up. As he thrashed around, the two girls standing near him moved out of the way. When Damon saw that he was about to kick a large porcelain urn, he grabbed Stefan under his armpits and hauled him into a clear area.

"He has epilepsy?" Mrs. Flowers asked with surprise and alarm.

"No," Damon said, shaking his head, a grim look on his face. He looked at Bonnie who now bent down and laid a hand on Stefan's forehead. Her reach had to move with his wild movements, and Damon could see she was concentrating on searching with her mind. Stefan's seizure suddenly ended and he slowly rolled onto his back. The young witch shook her head in frustration.

"Anything, Bonnie?" Damon asked.

"Redheaded woman. I saw her before when he had the seizure at school. I would know her if I met her," Bonnie said.

"Can you do a location spell?" Elena asked.

"Not without something of hers or during one of the attacks. I think she sensed my searching for her and she broke her connection to Stefan. I'm sure she isn't where she was a minute ago."

"Damn," Damon muttered. He knelt by Stefan's head, touched his hair and spoke to him. "Are you awake, Stef? Can you hear me?"

Stefan raised a hand and wiggled his fingers. The tremor in his hand was visible. His eyes were closed and a tear ran down the side of his face. His whole body vibrated to the pounding of his heart from adrenaline.

"Okay. Try to relax. You're all right."

Stefan swallowed and opened his eyes. For a long moment, he just stared at the ornate wooden ceiling panels. Then he focused on Elena's face and his blank expression hardened a bit. He felt embarrassed and humiliated. "I hate this," he murmured, staring at the ceiling again. He shook his head in aggravation and put a hand over his mouth as he mumbled a string of curses. Then his eyes sought Bonnie's.

"Anything?" he asked as Damon had done.

"Same as before, no more. Sorry, Stefan," Bonnie said. "Well, I did see that she was standing in the Square downtown. That's quite a ways for her to affect you."

"So, she's a strong witch," Elena said.

"I'd say so," Bonnie agreed. "We need to be careful."

"Can you get up now?" Damon asked his brother. "I'll take you upstairs."

Stefan managed to sit up and both Damon and Elena took his arms so that he was able to stand, although they held onto him.

"Mrs. Flowers, I need to go upstairs with him," Damon said. "If you want to wait, Elena can get you more tea."

"I think it's time for me to leave. Thank you for helping me find my earring. It's nice meeting you all again. Stefan, I hope you feel better quickly."

"Thanks. I'll be all right in a few minutes," he managed to say without looking at her.

They all walked into the hall where Damon put an arm around Stefan's waist and they disappeared in a blur up the stairs.

The three women went out to the front porch.

"Will Stefan really be all right? Am I to understand that a witch caused that attack?" Mrs. Flowers asked.

"Yes," Elena said. "To both of your questions. Actually, Stefan is handicapped by the attacks because he can't drive. I gave him a ride home because Bonnie and I were coming to talk to Damon anyway."

"I see. Can I ask why the witch is doing this to him?"

"It might be better if you didn't, Mrs. Flowers," Elena said.

The older woman nodded. She looked at Bonnie. "You were actually able to see the person attacking him?"

Bonnie nodded. "I'm hoping to learn more. I want to help him."

"Well, I hope you can, Miss Bennett. It was nice meeting you."

Mrs. Flowers went to her car and drove away, thinking that the big house and the small town were really weird places and dangerous to some.

Damon took Stefan up to the third floor room and sat him on the edge of the bed.

"I'm okay. You can leave me alone," Stefan muttered. The fuzziness in his head had cleared.

"You aren't okay. You look like hell and I don't mean just because you're a mess. Does Klaus know you're having more seizures?" Damon asked, knowing Stefan wasn't spending much time with the hybrid anymore. Maybe Klaus didn't care.

"He knows. Rebekah told him. He can't really do anything about it without the help of a witch."

"The redheaded woman is in downtown Mystic Falls right now. I'm going to talk to Liz. She keeps an eye on people who come here. Strangers."

"Too many people come to town, Damon. The events and shopping," Stefan said, shaking his head.

"This is a redhead. It's not like there are dozens of them. And Bonnie is _our_ witch. She's on your side. Let's hope she gets a lead."

"Yeah, yeah. Let me take a shower. I'm okay now. Leave me alone, okay?" Stefan said, still sitting on the bed. He pressed a hand to his forehead where a trace of a headache lingered.

Damon moved toward the door and was about to leave when he heard someone coming up the stairs. Both he and Stefan looked up to see that it was Klaus, who walked in the open doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Damon demanded, although he knew the answer.

Ignoring Damon, Klaus walked over to look at Stefan with anger and concern on his face.

"You had another seizure!"

Stefan stood up to face him, frowning. "I'm all right, Klaus. I'm going to take a shower now." He turned to move away, but Klaus reached out and took hold of his arm.

Damon started to move toward Klaus, but he hesitated, unsure if he should interfere.

"Don't walk away from me," Klaus ordered. Then, in a more gentle voice, he added, "Look at me." When Stefan did, showing a hint of the fear he still felt from the seizure, Klaus' expression softened. He reached out and, ignoring the observant and tense Damon, he drew Stefan into his arms and held him close. Although he felt Stefan resist a little, he also felt him give up and lean against him.

Damon, who had been ready to force Klaus away from his brother, now saw Stefan give up his resistance and accept the embrace. He also watched his brother lean his head on Klaus' shoulder, close his eyes and bring his hands up to rest against the blond man's sides.

Damon had mixed feelings about what he saw. He detested Klaus for general reasons and he was angry that he had put Stefan in the situation he was in. It was Klaus' fault. Well, mostly. He also felt angry that Klaus had taken such advantage of Stefan and still had an emotional hold on him. But it really bothered Damon that he felt a touch of jealousy, because Klaus had a closer bond with Stefan than _he_ did at this moment. Disgusted, Damon walked away and went downstairs.

Klaus let Stefan go and walked with him to the bathroom. He watched his younger friend undress, but he had no intention of making sexual demands. He knew Stefan felt shaky and upset. He also knew the young man was afraid of the seizures and the witch causing them.

While Stefan showered, Klaus took a hand towel and wiped at a spot on his shirt soiled by Stefan's soiled shirt. When Stefan was clean and dry and dressed again, they sat in the bedroom and talked for a short while about the attacks and what to do about them. They reached no real conclusion and in a few minutes, Klaus kissed Stefan's cheek and left the younger man sitting on his bed, thinking.

When Damon went downstairs, he found Elena and Bonnie in the study. The girls were finishing cleaning the mess on the floor. Elena stood up, saying, "_Klaus _came in! He saw what we were doing and he went upstairs!"

"I know. He's with Stefan," Damon said, scowling. "I hate to say it, but I think that damned hybrid calmed Stef more than we could. Of course, he's had more experience with the attacks."

"I wonder just how many of those seizures Stefan's had. It really scares me," Elena said, "and I can see that it's devastating to Stefan. We have to do something!"

"I know," Damon said. He poured himself a generous drink and then got on the phone and made contract with Sheriff Forbes. He quickly told her that a red-headed witch now in Mystic Falls was giving Stefan some kind of seizures like epilepsy. He asked her to keep an eye open for the woman. She said she would.

The three people sat in the study, Damon drinking bourbon and the girls drinking Cokes as they started to toss around ideas. They were surprised when Klaus came down the stairs and into the study's doorway. Damon made no move to offer him a drink.

"Do any of you have a decent plan to get this new witch?" he demanded with a smile that was not friendly. His blue eyes shifted to Bonnie, whom he didn't like at all. She was the one who had almost caused his destruction at the time of the sacrifice, along with the help of Stefan and Elijah. But she was a witch, the very kind of person needed to help Stefan.

"You're a strong witch," he said almost accusingly. "You should be able to help Stefan."

"I'm … I haven't decided what will help him," Bonnie said, not wanting to admit to him that she was no longer as strong as she had been at the time of the sacrifice. "But, I know what the woman looks like. I'll know her if I spot her."

"That's something for a start," Klaus conceded with a snort. "More must be done!"

"I just asked the sheriff to look for a redheaded woman, a stranger in town," Damon informed the hybrid, although he had considered not giving the man that fact. "By the way, since you've been with Stefan for these attacks, just how many has he had?"

"Actually, I haven't counted. Eight or nine. Maybe ten, counting the ones he's had here. Rebekah said he had one at the school and he just had one," Klaus said.

"And they're all the same? Falling down and puking? Thrashing around?"

"No. They aren't all the same," Klaus said, shaking his head slightly. "Different witches, differences in what Stefan experiences. That's what I have concluded, but only he can tell you how they have varied. Ask him."

"How the hell did the witches track you and Stefan?" Damon asked.

"Cell phone GPS. Actually, I'm not sure about this present witch. Stefan has replaced that phone. Then again, this is Stefan's home town and it may be the first place she looked. It may be as simple as that. Anyway, Miss Bennett, I am confident that you will quickly figure out a way to stop this person. You _will,_ won't you?"

"I intend to do my best," Bonnie said, glaring at him.

"See that you do," Klaus said with a smirk and he turned and left.

"I don't care what the hell that bastard wants," Damon said after a long moment, "but I intent to find a way to stop the witch."

"We'll get her somehow," Elena said with determination. Stefan might be damaged goods right now, but she still had hopes of seeing his life straightened out.

A/N I hope you all liked this chapter. The reason I brought Mrs. Flowers into it was because the Salvatore family has always had someone running the house, since for many years neither Damon nor Stefan lived there. Please give me some feedback or a review. Thanks.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as this witch, are mine.

A.N. This witch's attack doesn't involve the vertigo seizures Stefan has had in the past. Involves compassion, humor and a bit of drama. WARNING: Part of this story deals with male anatomy. I tried to treat this in a delicate manner and use terms that were not too explicit or crude so it could remain rated T.

POSSUM

Damon was in the kitchen eating his breakfast when he heard someone yell his name. He jumped, startled and alarmed by the tone of the voice. It sounded like Stefan's voice, but with fear.

"Damon! Damon! Papa!" came the frightened cry.

Papa? Damon wondered as he swooped up the back stairs to the second floor. Knowing that Stefan was in his own room, he zipped up the next flight of steps to the third floor and to the door to Stefan's room.

"Damon!" Stefan screamed as Damon entered the room.

"What the hell, Stefan?" the older brother asked, seeing Stefan sitting pressed up against the headboard of his bed and clutching a large bed pillow protectively in front of him. Damon couldn't tell if he was naked or had underwear on. "What's wrong?"

He saw Stefan look over at the corner of the room with terror in his eyes. His face was pale and his hands clutching the pillow were shaking. Damon looked in the corner, but he didn't see anything to fear.

Walking to the side of the bed, he asked again, "Stefan, what's _wrong_?"

"Possum! Make it go away, Damon! Please, make it go away. It's going to bite me again!" Stefan's tone and behavior was rather childish, Damon thought. Strange.

Damon shot a glance at the corner again, but he knew there was no opossum there. He stared back at his cowering brother. Had Stefan had a nightmare that still seemed real to him? He knew Stefan had once been terrified of the nocturnal opossums, ever since one had bitten his thigh when he was a child. Luckily the animal had not been rabid and the bite had not become seriously infected in those days before antibiotics.

Although it had taken several years, Stefan had outgrown his fear of the creatures. For the most part. At least it was no longer a phobia, which was good, because when a vampire was prowling around at night, he just might cross paths with one of the animals. In fact, rabbit-killing Stefan had probably dined on opossums now and then.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Damon said soothingly, "Stefan, the possum's gone. I don't see it. Come over here next to me. Come on. You're safe now." He patted the bed beside him.

He could see the fear and uncertainty as Stefan scooted over next to him and grabbed his arm, clinging like a frightened child. He suspected the witch was messing with his brother's mind again. It made him angry, but he didn't want to show that anger to Stefan.

"You're safe now," he said gently, freeing his arm and putting it around Stefan's trembling shoulders. "Did you have a seizure? Huh?"

Stefan looked at him with large, dark eyes and shook his head. He was sitting hunched over with his legs tucked under him and he had the pillow on his lap. Stefan looked over at the corner again and then at other places on the floor. Obviously, he didn't see the creature now, but he was looking for it.

"The possum bit me, Damon! He did!" His tone of voice was hushed, but very childish. So was the expression on his face.

Knowing that this had to be untrue, Damon asked, "Where did he bite you? Show me."

Stefan carefully lifted the pillow from his lap. He looked under it and put it back in place.

Damon could now see that Stefan was wearing the boxer briefs he often wore.

"He bit me and it's all _swolled up_!" Stefan whispered fearfully.

"Let me see, Stef," Damon urged encouragingly.

"I'm going to _die_ like Willie did," Stefan said and tears flooded his eyes.

"Who?"

"Willie Anderson. He got bit in the arm by a rattlesnake. His arm swolled up _huge_ andturned a funny color and he died! Don't you remember?" He swiped an arm across his face to wipe away tears. More spilled over.

Damon did recall a boy dying of snake bite a very long time ago. That was back when Stefan was around eight years old. If Stefan now had a swelling that looked huge to a little boy, there was only one likely explanation. A smile teased the corners of his mouth.

"You _aren't _going to die, Stefan. Show me where the bite is. There must be bite marks, right?"

Stefan nodded and he timidly raised the pillow from his lap and set it aside. The bulge in his underwear was obvious. The fact that he was afraid to touch it was also obvious.

"Does it hurt?" Damon asked, suppressing the smile.

"A little, I guess. My drawers are too tight," Stefan said, staring at the bulge.

"Take it out and let's look for the bite marks. We know it wasn't any ole rattlesnake. So you aren't going to die."

Rather gingerly, Stefan reached into his underpants from the top, instead of through the fly. He had to push the briefs down to try to get the swollen thing out. He finally managed to free it and it sprang forward. Stefan gave a start and eyed it fearfully.

Damon didn't laugh out loud, although he found the situation getting funnier by the minute. Stefan had a full erection which looked perfectly normal for an adult. There was nothing wrong with it.

"Are there any bite marks?" Damon managed to ask straight-faced. Actually, the situation shouldn't be funny because Stefan shouldn't be thinking he was a child and he shouldn't be afraid of his adult anatomy. But at the moment, Damon couldn't help being amused. "I don't see any marks. Do you?"

Stefan looked at the thing, really large compared to what he expected as a child to have attached to his body. He hesitated to touch it again. In fact, he drew his hands up to his chest as if it were dangerous. He didn't answer Damon's question.

"It's going to rot like Willie's arm, isn't it?" he said with tears spilling over again and running down his face. "It'll be ruined and I won't grow up to be a man like Papa."

Damon remembered that Stefan had called their father "Papa" until he was ten, when Giuseppe had insisted he was old enough to call him "Father."

"No, it's _not _going to be ruined, Stef. And, yes, you'll grow up to be a man. I promise," Damon said, tightening his arm around Stefan's shoulders. "And you know what? Your little pisser grew up all of a sudden faster than you did. See, that's why it's so much bigger than it was. And on top of that, right now, it's stiff. Were you playing with it?"

Stefan shook his head vigorously in denial. "The possum bit me, Damon. That's why it's swolled. Will it get better?"

"Yes. It'll be all right. You'll see. Now, put it back in your pants."

Stefan tried, but he failed. He was afraid to touch the appendage that he thought was grotesque, and when he finally took a hesitant hold of it, he couldn't get it back where it had come from.

"It won't fit!"

"Yes, it will if you push it to the side."

Stefan tried again, fumbling, but he just didn't do it right. In his child's mind, it was way too big.

Damon put his hand over his mouth and bit his lip, trying to keep from laughing out loud as he watched the struggle.

"You do it for me, Damon," the younger brother finally said, frustrated. He looked trustingly at his big brother.

After a moment's hesitation, Damon reached down, took hold of the organ and tucked it inside the underwear. He was about to let go when Stefan's hand closed tightly on his wrist. And it wasn't the grip of Little Boy Stefan.

Damon looked him in the eye and saw that the child was gone. Stefan the Man was glaring at him.

"This isn't what it looks like," Damon said, forcing a sheepish smile and feeling like he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. Stefan lifted both their hands away form his groin.

"Oh? I'd _really_ like to hear why you had your hand in my pants and why I'm hard right now."

"You aren't going to believe me," Damon said, realizing Stefan had no memory of what had just happened.

"Try me."

"Do you know what you've been doing the last fifteen minutes?"

Stefan let go of Damon's wrist, which had almost been fractured in the forceful grip. A frown came to his face as he tried to think. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table and realized there was a really fuzzy lapse in his memory.

"Did I have a seizure? I don't feel like I had one. So, what were you doing?"

In as serious a tone as he could muster, Damon told him briefly what had happened and Stefan looked incredulous and then angry.

"You think the witch did this? There's no way the witch could know I was terrified of possums when I was a kid!"

"No, but what if all she needed to do was tell your mind to seek something that did terrify you as a kid and have that attack you. I guess if you'd been afraid of hard boiled eggs, that wouldn't have worked. Anyway, I don't know why you had a stiffy, which I see has gone down." Still sitting beside Stefan, he had glanced at the offending member hidden in the underwear.

Stefan looked down and shook his head. "We gotta get that witch. She's playing cruel games and I'm fed up with it."

"I know. We'll get her. There's no telling what she'll come up with next. I have to admit, this was pretty imaginative. If it hadn't been so scary for you, I would have laughed my head off." He couldn't keep the grin from his face any longer.

"Get out!" Stefan said indignantly.

"How're you going to write this up in your journal, little brother?" Unable to keep from laughing, Damon felt backward across the bed and roared with hilarity.

"I mean, get the hell out of my room, Damon!" Stefan bellowed, getting up, grabbing Damon's feet and hauling his brother off the bed and onto the floor with a thud.

"I wonder if Elena would find this story funny," Damon chuckled as he got to his feet and headed for the door.

"I'll kill you if you tell her, Damon! I swear!" Stefan said, not looking too dangerous in his underwear and with red-rimmed eyes.

"Oh, don't get your knickers in a knot. I won't tell her," Damon said, still grinning. "But watch out for them possums." And he laughed all the way down the stairs.

Stefan was certainly annoyed and humiliated by Damon's laughing at him; however, the fact that the episode had happened was as upsetting as the vertigo attacks. Even worse was the fact that Stefan didn't remember any of what Damon had related to him. What was the point of that? Why would the witch go through the whole opossum episode if Stefan himself didn't remember it beyond a residual feeling of fear? If Damon hadn't come to his room, he would have come out of the episode confused and fearful, but wondering what had happened. It didn't make sense.

He pulled on his usual at-home attire of jeans, tank top and athletic shoes. He carefully brushed his hair, adding a little gel to make it do what he wanted it to do. He needed to get another haircut one of these days.

He suddenly felt his fear increase as memory of the opossum-bite-and-erection incident returned fully. He found himself eyeing the corner where he had been sure the animal had been hiding, and his right hand reflexively reached down to cover his groin area protectively. This time, he knew it was a delusion, a false idea put in his head by the witch. So, she _did_ want him to stew over the event! And she _had_ to be nearby or at least it was quite possible!

"Damon! Damon!" he yelled as he zipped down the back steps to the kitchen, from which the aroma of breakfast came. He saw Damon spring up from his chair at the kitchen table and look at him with alarm. Another opossum attack?

"She's at it again! Come on," Stefan yelled, bolting for the back door. "Circle north and I'll go south."

Damon was out the door on his heels. One of them went one way and one the other, going wide in the back yard and then swinging out toward the road in front of the house. They moved in blurred vampire speed, going for short distances, landing and then speeding again. They couldn't go a long way in one "jump."

It was Stefan who spotted a car idling some distance away in the road and pointed south. He zipped toward the car, but he had to land short of it. The driver saw him and stepped on the gas. With squealing tires the vehicle roared away and Stefan zipped after it. He wasn't fast enough, falling just short of landing on the roof. He tried again, but the car had fast pick-up, as so many cars these days did, and it was getting away. In addition, he felt a pain in his head, but the witch was retreating too far to knock Stefan down with her head-pain attack.

Damon dropped in beside him. "Did you get the license number?" he asked.

"Yeah," Stefan said and he reeled it off.

Damon pulled out his cell phone and called Liz Forbes. He gave her the make and model of the car and the plate number. She said she would get back to him.

"Dammit! So close," Stefan grumbled. The headache had disappeared.

Looking around to see if anyone was watching them, they started walking back toward their house, now some distance away. There were people outside their houses now, drawn by the squeal of tires. If they had seen the Salvatores seemingly appear out of nowhere, they didn't believe their eyes and shrugged it off.

"She gave me back the memory of what happened earlier," Stefan told Damon.

"She was really trying to screw with your mind," Damon said, nodding. "How do you feel now?"

"All right. Damn, I hope she leaves town. I would _so_ like to see the end of all this vendetta," Stefan said.

"I don't blame you," Damon agreed. "Do you think it would be safe for me to heat up my breakfast _again _and finish eating it without you interrupting?" His tone was only vaguely snarky. He looked at Stefan and rolled his eyes as they walked along.

"I'll really try to let you eat in peace," Stefan said patiently. He was tempted to throw his arm over Damon's shoulder, but he decided Damon had had enough of brotherly togetherness for one morning.

One thing Stefan knew, at the moment, his "good" side emotions were working and he felt positive feelings for his brother. If the witch was gone, and if he could get away from Klaus, things would really be looking up.

It was less than an hour later when Liz came by the house. She had news. One of her deputies had spotted the car not five minutes after she had put out the word. Instead of pulling over when the deputy put on his vehicle's flashing lights, the driver had sped away. The car had gone through one of Mystic Falls' four traffic lights, ignoring the red light, and had been T-boned by a large vehicle on the cross street.

"The driver was killed. She was a red-headed woman. A light-skinned African-American named Sophia Cheaten. Mrs. William Cheaten, in fact. A computer search turned up the fact that her husband recently died in Chicago under questionable circumstances. In addition, authorities are checking to see if his death was related to the murder of a nightclub owner the next night, because he died within a block of the club. Does any of this ring a bell with either of you?"

"Could the night club owner have killed the husband for some reason? Or had him killed?" Damon asked when Stefan remained silent.

"You aren't going to tell me whatever you know, are you?" Liz said, shaking her head. "This woman lost her husband not long ago and then she turns up harassing you, Stefan. That sounds suspicious to me. But, for now, we'll let it go. I probably don't really want do know, do I?"

"Probably not, Liz. You know how things are around here," Damon said with a roll of his eyes.

He and Stefan watched Liz drive away.

"We can only hope that's the end of it," Stefan said. "Please let it be the end."

A/N. This is the end of the VERTIGO story. I hope you all liked it. Comments? _Please _give me some feedback. Thanks.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me.

A/N I was not sure if I wanted to do an epilogue to the story, but since I've been asked if there will be one, and since the story ended rather abruptly, here it is. Warning: mention of rape.

"Does Klaus Care?"

It was a bit later, after talking to Liz, that the brothers had a rather early drink of bourbon. Stefan reached for his cell phone and said, "I'm going to have to let Klaus know that this third witch is dead. I know it worried him."

"How nice that he worries about you," Damon said with a snort. "Or is it that he hates having someone mess with his property?" Much as he hated to admit it to himself, he didn't like that in some ways Klaus was closer to his brother than he was. Not that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with Stefan. He didn't. But he didn't like it at all that Klaus had one and that Stefan went along with it. Sure, Stefan claimed he hated it, but Damon wasn't so sure.

Stefan sent a text message to Klaus informing him that the witch was dead. He didn't give any more information, so he wasn't surprised when a return text ordered him to go over to the mansion that was being renovated.

"I gotta go talk to him," Stefan muttered.

"The master summons. Well, have fun," Damon said with sarcastic cheer. The situation made Damon angry. And although it was unfair, he sometimes took out his disgust on Stefan with snarky remarks. He suspected that once in Klaus' house, Stefan would find himself in the man's clutches, literally.

Stefan guessed the same thing and he wasn't happy about that. Unless Klaus phoned him instructing him to go to the house, Stefan had been staying away. If he had thought Klaus was too busy to want him, the last visit had told him differently. After being with Stefan briefly following the seizure Stefan had had in front of Mrs. Flowers, Klaus had quietly come into the Salvatore house one night and into Stefan's room. He had stayed about a half hour. Since then, they hadn't seen each other.

Stefan drove over to the construction/renovation site. Even on Sunday there were various trucks belonging to workmen parked here and there.

"You must see the progress that has been made," Klaus said with enthusiasm as he stood in the open front door. Stefan noticed four hybrids sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch. They were watching a football game on a wide-screen television right there on the porch. An electric cord and a cable came out a window to the TV.

Inside the house, evidence of work was everywhere. Klaus took him into a smallish room that was obviously being used as an office. A couple of computers, printers and various blueprints were in evidence. Klaus dismissed a man from one of the computers, and when they were alone, he listened to Stefan's story of the "possum attack," the witch's demise in a traffic accident, and the sheriff's report.

"So she was the wife of the man I killed in Chicago," Klaus said, nodding. "Revenge can be an on-going thing. A vendetta."

"Well, I hope her death is the end of it," Stefan said. "It's not like Damon or I actually killed her."

"Let's hope you're right, love," Klaus said. "Come on. I'll show you around. You'll be surprised at the changes since you were last here."

Since Stefan had not really toured the place, Klaus now took him here and there, proudly pointing out what had been done or was going to be done. The place was large, even to having a modest ballroom. Klaus was adding a bit of the European touch.

"When the work is done, I shall have a housewarming gala. Invite all the locals who are anybody," Klaus grinned. "I want to be a real part of Mystic Falls' society."

Stefan wasn't sure Mystic Falls was ready for Klaus.

"Where the hell are you getting the money for this?" Stefan asked. He well remembered that he and Klaus had stolen drug money from dealers, a lot of it, but they had spent some in Chicago and buying the house would have used more than what they had stolen. Stefan suspected Klaus had compelled someone for a bank loan.

"Oh, you know me. I'm resourceful," Klaus grinned, his arm over Stefan's shoulders. He then took Stefan to the second story where he showed off bedrooms and baths. Several of the bedrooms were finished and they were being used by the new hybrids.

"These guys are just hanging around? What happened to their wives and families and their jobs?" Stefan asked. He wondered how the men could stand doing nothing most of the time. He knew one of them was a lawyer and another was a stock broker.

"I'm paying them a wage to send back to their families. They are otherwise 'sired' by me and therefore bound to be here. Tyler Lockwood goes to school and lives at home, but he is nearby, so it's the same."

"In the long run, what are they here for?" Stefan asked. Klaus had never said why he wanted the hybrids except to have a faithful following of fellow hybrids and to be respected and feared by those who knew. Klaus' little private army.

"Time will tell. Here, let me show you my bedroom. It's finished," Klaus said, opening a door.

Stefan was impressed with the suite consisting of bedroom, sitting room, large bath and plenty of closet space. It was beautifully furnished, but masculine. He looked out the French doors that opened to a small balcony facing the back yard, made neat by a landscaping company.

He wasn't surprised when Klaus closed the door to the hall and locked it. He knew what Klaus had in mind when the hybrid placed his hands on his shoulders and turned him to face him.

"I've missed having you close. We spent months together and now I rarely see you. I have to sneak into your bedroom. Are you avoiding me?" Klaus asked in an intimate voice, his blue eyes alive with the pleasure of having Stefan in front of him.

"No. I've been going to school to keep an eye on Elena like you asked me to. And you have been very busy supervising this huge project. You came to my room the other night and as I recall, we made it together."

"We did. And that's not enough, love," Klaus murmured, looking into Stefan's dark green eyes.

Klaus put his hands on Stefan's face and pulled him into a kiss. Not wanting to anger Klaus, Stefan went along with it. He could tell the Original was getting aroused. No surprise there. He couldn't be disgusted with Klaus when he himself was becoming aroused out of habit. The man actually knew how to please Stefan greatly and therefore could demand the same in return.

Still, when Klaus ended the kiss, Stefan said, "Come on, Klaus. Why me? You've got plenty of others to play with. How about Tyler? Any interest in him?" Stefan felt really ashamed for suggesting such treatment of the teenager, whom he knew was smitten with Caroline.

"Nice-looking boy. I decided to try him out. He refused to cooperate. And you know how I am with people who refuse me," Klaus said with a smirk as he started to unbuttoned Stefan's shirt.

"What? Dammit, Klaus! You raped him? You're a real bastard, you know," Stefan growled, feeling outraged on Tyler's behalf. Months ago, in his early days with the hybrid, Stefan and Klaus had had a disagreement in bed and Klaus had raped him, making sure he was hurt. Stefan had not forgotten, and the anger he harbored was one of the reasons he wanted to be free of him. He usually hid these feeling from Klaus, though. To show it was to invite more trouble.

"Oh, I do know that. I tried it again with him. I was such a patient gentleman. I was. Really. But, damn if I didn't really hurt him again. He's not like you, love."

"He's a kid, Klaus!"

"So are you."

"No. I just _look_ like a kid. I've had a lot of experiences."

"Yes, you have. What say we not discuss anyone else. Shall we disrobe then?" Klaus murmured, slowly continuing to undo buttons.

"Why'd I know you were going to say that?" Stefan said in a slightly joking tone. He was used to the way Klaus worded things. And, in truth, he was willing to cooperate. He set to work on Klaus' shirt buttons. It was taking the easy way out. Besides, with Klaus, he did as he was told. When both he and Klaus were naked, he found himself waiting for instructions. I am such a whore! he thought with a touch of disgust. I should get paid for this!

When Stefan drove home he was as conflicted as ever about his relationship with Klaus. He had wanted to ask the man again when he was going to release him from his servitude, but he somehow hadn't. He knew Klaus really liked having him on a leash, so to speak.

Once in the house, he headed for the study and poured himself a drink. He stood deep in thought, staring out a window, when he became aware that Damon had entered the room. Damon came to the stand close behind him and Stefan heard him sniff his head and neck. That was annoying. An invasion of his privacy and personal space.

"Took a shower, did you? But you didn't wash your hair. Hm. Klaus had his fingers in your hair. And on your body. And something _in _your body, I bet."

"Shut up, Damon!" Stefan snapped. He wasn't in the mood for Damon's verbal bullying.

"Fine. Just making observations. When are you going to make this man stop using you? Or is he _that fun_ to be with?" Damon rolled his eyes and his tone was mocking.

Stefan wheeled around and threw a punch at Damon. His brother managed to duck most of the blow, but it did graze his ear. Since it was Stefan's right hand, the ring cut the edge of the ear lobe, which started to bleed. Damon danced back out of range, grinning at Stefan's anger. Damon was always alert to punches from Stefan's right.

"Oooh, that feels _so _good, Klaus!" Damon gasped in a sing-song voice. He was in a mood.

Stefan moved in a blur and crashed into his brother, punching him in the belly, knocking him down. They punched each other as they rolled around on the floor, with Stefan taking out some of his anger at Klaus on Damon, until Damon spent most of his effort deflecting or avoiding the worst of Stefan's blows. But when Stefan caught him a hard blow with a knee to the groin, Damon really lost his temper and managed to slam a blow to Stefan's head that stunned him.

Climbing out from under this brother, Damon stood up, supporting his painful private parts for a minute. He looked down at Stefan. Although he was angry with him, he also felt sorry for him. He was sure Stefan didn't want to be intimate with Klaus, but circumstances made it necessary. He knew he shouldn't make fun of the situation. He wouldn't have liked it if it was Stefan making fun of him for the same thing.

And it could have been. Damon had more than once found himself very briefly in a similar situation, where he had had to comply or suffer something worse.

Stefan became aware with a start, jumping up and assuming a defensive position. Then he noticed that Damon was standing over by the couch sipping his drink and watching him. Truce. Slowly he straightened up and then moved to the bar and poured himself a second drink. He had dropped his first one.

"Did you see anything interesting over there, other than Klaus's body?" Damon asked in an even tone. He had sore body parts but he didn't show it. Of course, like Stefan, he had healed cuts and scrapes which left behind drying area's of blood. They both had some bruises that would soon disappear.

"He gave me a tour of the house," Stefan said, deciding to be civil for the moment. He knew he had delivered at least one really painful blow. Served Damon right. "Including his bedroom, of course. The other hybrids were there. _Not_ in the bedroom."

"How many?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe eight or ten. Tyler wasn't there."

"So, there are at least ten or eleven."

Stefan looked at his brother and felt the urge to tell more. He wasn't sure if he should speak up or keep it to himself, but he felt bad about Tyler.

"Klaus told me he raped Tyler," he said.

Damon raised his eyebrows and then frowned. "That is _so_ not nice. Bad Klaus. So, is Tyler going to take your place?" Damon's tone was a bit snarky. He didn't care about the Lockwood hybrid who had bitten him and put him through hell.

"I don't think so. It didn't go very well after the assault, according to Klaus. So, I'm still the lucky object of Klaus' affection."

"Tell me the truth. If a real opportunity arose, would you get free of the bastard?"

"Hell, yes! Absolutely!" Stefan said. "Might an opportunity arise?" He looked closely at his brother. Did he know something? Was he hinting at something?

"Possibly," Damon said, knowing the vampire-killing vampire Mikael was in town. He didn't explain this to Stefan, though.

"What? How?" Stefan asked, eagerness in his tone.

"I'm not going to tell you yet. I'm not convinced you wouldn't run right back to Klaus with the information."

"I know you don't trust me, Damon. But believe me, I truly want to be free of him!" Stefan said with emphasis. "I mean it!"

And the time came when Damon did tell Stefan that Mikael was in town and that he could kill Klaus. For the first time in a long time, Stefan felt he would soon be free. The day would finally come!

A/N As we all know, Mikael and Damon failed to kill Klaus, because Stefan interfered.

As a reward, Klaus finally freed Stefan. Freed him to seek revenge.


End file.
